to want to slap people who say LAY down when they mean LIE down?

[UnquietDad]

That's it, really.

I still think the "correct" use should not be one which has arisen from misuse, i.e. people being too stupid to know the difference.

Message withdrawn

wakened up? Mine is the damn t-shirt 'Bored of the Beckhams' aaaahhhh.

YANBU, but I think "it's a present from my wife and I" and other such unforgivable mauling of subject / object pronouns is far, far worse and particularly as I have heard this several times on radio four!!!

The "should of" is getting more and more common in internet forums, and I find it makes comprehension difficult unless you read English "phonetically", and I don't (that's why I could not read Trainspotting in the original).
Another one getting more frequent is the confusion between "effect" and "affect". Is this a fashion? I am sure it didn't happen 5 years ago.

bonita, I have seen advice/advise mixed up on here several times and bitten my tongue!
I am forever correcting my 2.9 and 6.10 year old children for saying of instead of have, Me instead of I, Her instead of she.

I'm also a foreigner. I always struggle with the pronouncaton of the "ea" , sometimes it's like "bear" sometimes like "dear".

The frog leaped through the air. How to pronounce leaped??

HA! It can be incredibly confusing, try reading with a 6 yo who can't understand the differences in the rules.
Btw, It's 'leeped'

My dad's been in this country for forty years and he still struggles with pronouncation. He can't say Th, comes out suh and he always gets his ps and his bs mixed up. Every xmas he wants my mum to 'paste' the turkey.

dd's book is called Frankie and Albertine. Is it "albertiene" or Alberteine"?

Lol, madness, goodness knows.

well, I tend to say "Albertn" mumble mumble...

YANBU UQD. I hate this. Also bored of and should of. My particular bugbear at the moment is floor being used instead of ground. What is that about? A floor is only to be found indoors, surely.

and sat. as in saying 'i was sat' instead of 'i was sitting' or he is sat there instead of he is sitting there. obviously with my complete inability to care about capital letters i haven't a leg to stand on.

Isn't it used in a prayer? Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep.

UD I am a bit anal about spelling especially when mners start going on about immigrants who can't speak English, yet they as natives can't spell.

Is it 'bored by' rather than 'bored of'?

Rosalux - and beds are only found at the bottom of the sea.

I get a little annoyed when people at work say do youwant voicemail rather than would you like vm... more for politeness tho.

What about using 'literally'...ie "his eyes were literally popping out of his head!" grrrr. unless his head in a vice, then very very sorry.

rantinghousewife - yes, I totally agree, I hate them with a vengeance because the grammar is so awful.

My daughter is learning English mostly from me and DVDs since we live in France and every day I catch her repeating things she has heard. So it is incredibly important to me that she only hear correct English, given the limited sources she is exposed to.

Long live Angelina Ballerina

Haven't read thread, but just to say, this one has been around a while:
"Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep..."

Hate it when people mix 'infer' and 'imply'. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

funnypeculiar

"Now I lay me down to sleep"

= now I lay my body down to sleep

me is the object, and the transitive verb to lay is being used correctly

The equivalent using the intransitive verb to lie would be

"Now I lie down to sleep".

'Now I lay me down to sleep'

actually proves UD's point because in this example 'lay' is being used transitively. The object is 'me'.

If you take away the 'me' you should say 'lie'

Anyway, I don't tend to hear people saying 'I'm going to lay me down for a little while' in conversation...

Oh snap Anna!