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

[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.

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

Yes, I will freely admit that I have no natural ear for lay/lie. It always sends me to the grammar book (or slips by). It probably is an American thing--we so often use it incorrectly when we speak that we don't have any idea what we're doing anymore.

Surprisingly, who/whom doesn't bother me as much (not to say I always use it correctly). I took some Latin at some point, and it made me appreciate the who/whom business a bit more. (Although I had fits when I started the language--dative? what the hell is dative? And ablative?--are these even words?). Grammar was not formally taught at my very American elementary school--the nice British graduate student teaching the the Latin class was pretty appalled with us American college students.