Five No-Nos For Beginning Writers

[TheEarl]

Re: Re: lay, laid or lied?

Incidentally, the two forms of the language are generally referred to as British or American English.

Not in England they're not. British English is an invention of Microsoft. There is English and American English. If the two need to be distinguished further, then the Queen's English is used, but British English would be scoffed at by most Englishmen. It's our language, so we get to call our version 'English.'

The Earl

 

[hiddenself]

I still think that lots of people saying it does not make it "US English." Lots of people also say "ferment" when they mean "foment" (= incite, agitate), as in "foment dissent." When I made that mistake once, my then-girlfriend proudly corrected me. We then found out that Webster's accepts the use of "ferment" in this instance. This is probably a case where repeated incorrect use has creeped into official acceptability. This is not the case (yet?) with the mixing up of the past tenses of lie and lay.