Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Poe-ta-toe? Poe-tah-toe? Toe-ma-toe? Toe-mah-toe?


On occasion, I think about those new folks in our country who have to negotiate the English language, and wonder if they experience the same confusion and bewilderment as I did in my early school years.   

I’m not referring to speaking the language; I’m referring to reading and writing it. I used phonetics in/inn the title to emphasize the point, as the two/to/too different pronunciations are actually spelled the same way/whey. Then there/their is the opposite of that—words that sound the same and are spelled differently: creek or creak, council or counsel, principle or principal, capitol or capital. These last three always trip me up. Thank God for proof readers. Spell Checker won’t help you/ewe here/hear.  

Ok, this is fun, but it’s making me a little crazy. What prompted me to ponder all this was a story I was working on. I never paid much attention to these variants until I began writing, and in doing so, realized what a quagmire the English language really is. Working on a short story the other day, I wrote the line:

“Cole nodded toward the large manila envelope laying on the table in front of her.”

Ooops! Is it “laying,” or “lying?”  You just can’t trust the grammar checker for these things. To be sure, you have to look it up, which is exactly what I did. I happened upon a Writer’s Digest article a while back that had several links to various interpretations of how words are misused. But in searching for them here, I found a site that has everything (or most everything) in one place. I like it better.


Enjoy your/yore self.

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog if you like it.

I need the money.

Best Regards,
DB

Website - www.dbcorey.com
Twitter - DB Corey
DB Corey on Facebook - tinyurl.com/mltv6rs 
DB Corey Author FB site bit.ly/DBCorey-Author
DB Corey on LinkIn - tinyurl.com/oftk7do
Meet Myster Write on Facebook – www.facebook.com/MeetMysterWrite

4 comments:

  1. you are always so funny...Lie, Lay, was lying..or is it was laying...but leave it up to todays society and it wont matter....we will type in 140 characters so this would look like,
    U R alwys so funE...Huh! who can keep up

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! You're right, Sandra.
      Now you made ME laugh.
      Thanks for dropping in.
      DB

      Delete
  2. Sometimes I think I need a full-time editor looking over my shoulder. Since my sickness, I've had to jog my memory and learn to spell those tough words I'd already knew.

    ReplyDelete