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@writeworld-blog / writeworld-blog.tumblr.com

WriteWorld is a writing help blog dedicated to serving our fellow writers through education and inspiration.
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writingtipsandtricks

Quick Grammar: Lie vs Lay

I had to look this one up the other day, so I figured some other people might have problems with it, so here’s a quick grammar tip on when to use which one.

Lie: “to rest or recline” i.e. I lie on my bed, thinking of how much I need to write, but end up drifting off to sleep.

Lay: “to place an object down” “I lay down my laptop on my desk every day and spend all of it on this god forsaken website instead of writing.

Now, here’s where things get tricky: the past tense version of lie is lay…English is hard. So here’s a “chart” type thing about what to use for each word and tense.

Infinitive        Present Tense     Past Tense     Past Participle     Present Participle

to lie               lie(s)                       lay                    lain                        lying

to lay             lay(s)                     laid                    laid                        laying  

Hopefully this helps! :D As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have and I will do my very best to answer them.

-Amanda

#grammar#language#word choice#english grammar#lie vs lay
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Elements of Style/Elementary Rules of Usage
www.crockford.com

1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.

Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,

Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice

This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.

Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake.But such forms as Achilles' heel, Moses' laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by

the heel of Achilles
the laws of Moses
the temple of Isis

The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and oneself have no apostrophe.

2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.

Thus write,

red, white, and blue
honest, energetic, but headstrong
He opened the letter, read it, and made a note of its contents.

This is also the usage of the Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.

In the names of business firms the last comma is omitted, as

Brown, Shipley and Company

The abbreviation etc., even if only a single term comes before it, is always preceded by a comma.

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Source: crockford.com
#elements of style#style#style element#style elements#nouns#conjunction#comma#possessive singular#language#grammar
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elumish
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z-co

Hello! A lot of you have been asking me where and how I’ve learn multiple languages and well, after a few hours of digging through my browser history and bookmarks, I was able to collect all of these resources. I have personally used all of these, so I can assure you they are useful! If there is something wrong with a website or a link, please let me know. Also, if you have any questions or if you want a learning buddy, my ask box is open. (I speak English and Spanish. I’m learning Korean, German, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, and Esperanto)

Note: Learning a new language requires a lot of dedication, more than you actually think! Especially if you’re learning multiple languages at the same time. It isn’t impossible, but it will take time. And by time I mean months and/or years! So please, be patient. Take your time. Don’t rush. Keep in mind that you will mess up and that’s okay. Practice as much as you can. Practice out loud. Talk to yourself if you can. It doesn’t matter if people think you’re crazy. They won’t be thinking the same when you become a polyglot, so don’t mind them. This is for you and your future.

Get started:

Multiple languages, one website

Specific Languages

Korean:

Chinese/Mandarin:

Japanese:

Esperanto:

German:

Italian:

Latin:

Portuguese:

French:

Spanish:

Thai:

Arabic:

Hindi:

Vietnamese:

Greek:

Romanian:

Welsh:

Dutch:

Russian:

Swedish:

That’s it. That’s all I have right now. I’ll try to search for more and will keep updating this list! If you have a request for a specific language, just send me an ask. Have fun and good luck! 

#language#learning languages#resources
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Tameri: Basic Grammar
www.tameri.com|Susan D. Schnelbach, [email protected]

It is a cliché: learn the rules before breaking them. Unfortunately, many writers lack basic knowledge of grammar. American schools stopped asking students to diagram sentences many years ago. Possibly worse, American English dictionaries and grammar guides increasingly accept non-standard word usages. Although far from comprehensive, this writers’ guide to basic grammar might prove useful.

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Source: tameri.com
#writing#language#grammar#Susan D. Schnelbach#parts of speech
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daily-prompts
nowyoukno.com

Source for more facts follow NowYouKno

  • A road has no special qualifiers. It connects point a to point b.
  • A street connects buildings together, usually in a city, usually east to west, opposite of avenue.
  • An avenue runs north south. Avenues and streets may be used interchangeably for directions, usually has median
  • A boulevard is a street with trees down the middle or on both sides
  • A lane is a narrow street usually lacking a median.
  • A drive is a private, winding road
  • A way is a small out of the way road
  • a court usually ends in a cul de sac or similar little loop
  • a plaza or square is usually a wide open space, but in modern definitons, one of the above probably fits better for a plaza as a road.
  • a terrace is a raised flat area around a building. When used for a road it probably better fits one of the above.
  • uk, a close is similar to a court, a short road serving a few houses, may have cul de sac
  • run is usually located near a stream or other small body of water
  • place is similar to a court, or close, usually a short skinny dead end road, with or without cul de sac, sometimes p shaped
  • bay is a small road where both ends link to the same connecting road
  • crescent is a windy s like shape, or just a crescent shape, for the record, above definition of bay was also given to me for crescent
  • a trail is usually in or near a wooded area
  • mews is an old british way of saying row of stables, more modernly seperate houses surrounding a courtyard
  • a highway is a major public road, usually connecting multiple cities
  • a motorway is similar to a highway, with the term more common in New Zealand, the UK, and Austrailia, no stopping, no pedestrian or animal traffic allowed
  • an interstate is a highway system connecting usually connecting multiple states, although some exist with no connections
  • a turnpike is part of a highway, and usully has a toll, often located close to a city or commercial are
  • a freeway is part of a highway with 2 or more lanes on each side, no tolls, sometimes termedexpressway, no intersections or cross streets.
  • a parkway is a major public road, usually decorated, sometimes part of a highway, has traffic lights.
  • a causeway combines roads and bridges, usually to cross a body of water
  • circuit and speedway are used interchangeably, usually refers to a racing course, practically probably something above.
  • as the name implies, garden is usually a well decorated small road, but probably better fits an above
  • a view is usually on a raised area of land, a hill or something similar.
  • byway is a minor road, usually a bit out of the way and not following main roads.
  • a cove is a narrow road, can be sheltered, usually near a larger body of water or mountains
  • a row is a street with a continuous line of close together houses on one or both sides, usually serving a specific function like a frat
  • a beltway is a highway surrounding an urban area
  • quay is a concrete platform running along water
  • crossing is where two roads meet
  • alley a narrow path or road between buildings, sometimes connects streets, not always driveable
  • point usually dead ends at a hill
  • pike usually a toll road
  • esplanade long open, level area, usually a walking path near the ocean
  • square open area where multiple streets meet, guess how its usually shaped.
  • landing usually near a dock or port, historically where boats drop goods.
  • walk historically a walking path or sidewalk, probably became a road later in its history
  • grove thickly sheltered by trees
  • copse a small grove
  • driveway almost always private, short, leading to a single residence or a few related ones
  • laneway uncommon, usually down a country road, itself a public road leading to multiple private driveways.
  • trace beaten path
  • circle usually circles around an area, but sometimes is like a “square”, an open place intersected by multiple roads.
  • channel usually near a water channel, the water itself connecting two larger bodies of water,
  • grange historically would have been a farmhouse or collection of houses on a farm, the road probably runs through what used to be a farm
  • park originally meaning an enclosed space, came to refer to an enclosed area of nature in a city, usually a well decorated road.
  • mill probably near an old flour mill or other mill.
  • spur similar to a byway, a smaller road branching off from a major road.
  • bypass passes around a populated area to divert traffic
  • roundabout or traffic circle circle around a traffic island with multiple connecting routes, a roundabout is usually smaller, with less room for crossing and passing, and safer
  • wynd a narrow lane between houses, similar to an alley, more common in UK
  • drive shortened form of driveway, not a driveway itself, usually in a neighborhood, connects several houses
  • parade wider than average road historically used as a parade ground.
  • terrace more common in uk, a row of houses.
  • chase on land historically used as private hunting grounds.
  • branch divides a road or area into multiple subdivisions.
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jo-biz

Writers need to know stuff like this.

#word list#road#street#vocabulary#language#word choice
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booksandpublishing
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tai-korczak

23 Emotions people feel, but can’t explain

  1. Sonder: The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
  2. Opia: The ambiguous intensity of Looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.
  3. Monachopsis: The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.
  4. Énouement: The bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.
  5. Vellichor: The strange wistfulness of used bookshops.
  6. Rubatosis: The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.
  7. Kenopsia: The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.
  8. Mauerbauertraurigkeit: The inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like.
  9. Jouska: A hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.
  10. Chrysalism: The amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.
  11. Vemödalen: The frustration of photographic something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist.
  12. Anecdoche: A conversation in which everyone is talking, but nobody is listening
  13. Ellipsism: A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.
  14. Kuebiko: A state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence.
  15. Lachesism: The desire to be struck by disaster – to survive a plane crash, or to lose everything in a fire.
  16. Exulansis: The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it.
  17. Adronitis: Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone.
  18. Rückkehrunruhe: The feeling of returning home after an immersive trip only to find it fading rapidly from your awareness.
  19. Nodus Tollens: The realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore.
  20. Onism: The frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time.
  21. Liberosis: The desire to care less about things.
  22. Altschmerz: Weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had – the same boring flaws and anxieties that you’ve been gnawing on for years.
  23. Occhiolism: The awareness of the smallness of your perspective.

omg this is a goldmine <3

#word list#vocabulary#inspiration#emotions#emotion#language
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Resisting Extravagant Verbosity
by Jonathan Crossfield
www.jonathancrossfield.com

Should wordsmiths imbue compositions with dexterous and verbose adroitness? Or should writers use short, simple phrases?

I often come up against amateur writers, particular in business, who insist writing should be a demonstration of language skill. Long words are used where short ones would suffice. Complex sentence structures threaten to entwine the reader in dense and impenetrable grammatical nightmares.

Whether on the company website, internal emails or customer correspondence, overdone writing can be extremely damaging to a business. Yet it is still commonplace. But overeager managers are not alone. Amateur novelists, homespun poets and pretentious bloggers can all produce wince-inducingly bad writing when they try too hard to impress.

When I argue for simplicity of language and structure, I often receive the same arguments in return. Here, I shall try to rebut them all.

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Source: jonathancrossfield.com
#Jonathan Crossfield#purple prose#word choice#language#style
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Beginners' four faults | Writing | Caro Clarke - writer
by Caro Clarke
www.caroclarke.com|This website was designed and built by Caro Clarke

As an editor, I know when I am reading someone's first novel. I have nicknames for the four give-away faults beginners make: (1) Walk and Chew Gum (2) Furry Dice (3) Tea, Vicar? (4) Styrofoam. I see at least one of these in every manuscript where the author has not mastered the craft of writing before submitting in his or her work. What are these four faults and, more importantly, how can you cure them?

(1) Walk and Chew Gum The writer has not integrated action and dialogue, internal monologue and action, or internal monologue with dialogue. It is as if the characters can do only one thing at a time. An example:

   "If you think you're going to town you'd better thing again," said Ralph.    He put down his can of beer.    "I'm not having any daughter of mine going to a Cantrell boy's party, and that's final!"    "Oh, Pa! How could you be so cruel!" JoBeth cried.    Then, hunting in her pockets for a tissue, she dried her eyes and stared at him defiantly.    "If I want to go, how can you stop me?" she demanded.    Ralph knew this would happen. She had always been independent, like her mother. He half-lurched to his feet.    "You little hussy!" he bellowed.    Running up the stairs, JoBeth turned at the landing.    "I am going, do you hear? I am."

Not integrating action and dialogue makes for jerky, lifeless prose. Combine, combine, toujours combine:

   "If you think you're going to town you'd better think again," Ralph snapped, putting down his can of beer. She was too damn much like her mother. "I'm not having any daughter of mine going to a Cantrell boy's party, and that's final!"    "Oh, Pa! How could you be so cruel!" JoBeth hunted her pockets for a tissue, dried her eyes and stared at him defiantly. "If I want to go, how can you stop me?"    Ralph half-lurched to his feet, bellowing, "You little hussy!" But JoBeth was already upstairs. "I am going, do you hear? I am."

This might not be award-winning prose, but it reflects the reality of the action and feelings better by having action, thought and dialogue knitted together.

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Source: caroclarke.com
#Caro Clarke#writing advice#writing tips#inspiration#word choice#style#language#new writers#writing for beginners
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Important Infrequently Used Words To Know
by Paul V. Hartman
justenglish.me

A

  • alacrity  a-LACK-ra-tee     cheerful willingness and promptness
  • anathema  a-NATH-a-ma     a thing or person cursed, banned, or reviled
  • anodyne  AN-a-dine     not likely to cause offence or disagreement and somewhat dull//anything that sooths or comforts
  • aphorism  AFF-oar-ism     a short, witty saying or concise principle
  • apostate  ah-POSS-tate     (also: apostasy) person who has left the fold or deserted the faith.
  • arrogate  ARROW-gate     to make an unreasonable claim
  • atavistic  at-a-VIS-tic     reverting to a primitive type
  • avuncular  a-VUNC-you-lar     “like an uncle”; benevolent

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Source: justenglish.me
#language#word list#vocabulary#improving vocabulary
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