Things I'll never learn

[amari_z]

When I was a kid I had the hardest time distinguishing between 'b' and 'd' and between 'p' and 'q.' It gave me fits and many tears were shed. Although it took me a while, I've pretty much gotten those straight, but there are still a number of words or rules of grammar that I can never, ever keep in my head. The top contenders:

lie, lay--I often get it right by chance, but if I have to be sure, I must look it up. Every single damn time.

loose/lose and choose/chose--for some reason I can't get these right, even though I know which one to say--I just can't seem to spell the one I want.

breathe/breath--same as above.

effect/affect--I know the rule, but I still get it wrong sometimes when I don't think about it.

like/as--I've pretty much surrendered on this one. I'm sure I use 'like' incorrectly all the time. I blame my California upbringing.

Not to say, of course, that I don't have many, many other problems. Feel free to point them out.

Comments

[park-ave-pirate.livejournal.com]

Okay, I am totally new to your blog (found it in a blog of a blog of a blog) and I am totally going to make a nerd of myself right away.
Your grammar frustrations are very normal and common. My grand career right now is as a Business Writer/Technical Editor. I spend all day looking at various documents (often dull as tombs) and editing misspellings, punctuation mishaps and spacing drama.
Needless to say: I should know what I am doing, right? In fact, I find myself sending emails that have a bunch of "...'s", capital letters to show I am excited and italics to show sarcasm.
Being a grown-up sucks!

J

[starry-diadem.livejournal.com]

I find that the lie/lay one is quite common with US writers. You (generic!) often write "lay" when it should be "lie". I find I have to restrain myself from leaping up and down and screaming things like "Lay what? Eggs?" at the monitor - which may give you a somewhat irreverant method of remembering which to use!

The one I have most difficulty with is who/whom. That often takes some head-in-hands thinking about and I'm never confident I've got it right.

[cloudednine.livejournal.com]

Ugh, grammar. I find generally that if I don't think about grammar and spelling I get it right. It's when I start thinking about the rules that I confuse myself and end up writing gobbledygook.

See, now you've got me thinking about lie/lay and I CAN'T REMEMBER THE DIFFERENCE. Ahhh! Help! Where's my dictionary?

[far-mountain.livejournal.com]

Okay, I give up. Is there an easy way (such as a pneumonic device or ditty) to determine when to use lay and when to use lie?

Thanks for the assistance.