Quoting Angelou's Quotation

There's an article in the Washington Post today (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/maya-angelou-says-king-memorial-inscription-makes-him-look-arrogant/2011/08/30/gIQAlYChqJ_story.html)  about the new Martin Luther King, Jr statue.  Renowned poet Maya Angelou has voiced her disapproval of how the statue creators paraphrased of one of King's speeches, and she is quoted as saying, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit."  Now, I'm not taking sides on this one, and I certainly do not want to take too much away from Angelou's point, but this brings up a great teachable moment that I couldn't pass up.  Angelou uses the word "quote", when really, she should have said, "quotation".  Why? 

Quite simply, "quote" is the
verb, and "quotation" is the noun!

It's simple..."quote" is a verb and "quotation" is a noun.  What Angelou should have said was, "The quotation makes..."  I hear this all the time, and have certainly caught myself making the same mistake, but it never hurts to know the correct form.  So, quite simply, if you are talking about something that has been said or written (a "thing", if you will), the correct word is "quotation".  If you are doing the action or describing someone else's action, use "quote". 

N.B.  I did find some research that suggests that "quote" as a noun is acceptable in casual and informal writing/speak, but the English purists out there don't seem to like that one bit!

Some examples:
I love the quotation, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
The girl quoted many quotations in her essay.
We read many famous quotations while at the library.
She quoted Einstein quite often.

All Right, Let's All Get This Right!

It's nitpicky* (let's come back to that in a second), but it's time we all learn that there is no such word as "alright".  It's always two words: all right.  The great news is that there is no confusing rule to remember when to use alright and when to use all right, unless you can't remember that the former is totally incorrect 100% of the time!

So, throw out "alright" with last week's leftovers and feel confident that you'll always be right with all right!

*Back to nitpicky, it's a pretty common phrase, but have you really stopped and wondered where it comes from?  According to sources I came across, it refers to picking nits (yes, the eggs of lice) out of hair.  That's a tedious and meticulous job (as any mother with kids who have lice can attest), just as to nitpick in the figurative sense is to find fault or analyze in an overly critical way.  http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nit1.htm  Similarly, I've heard it originated from chimps who spend much of their time laboriously picking nits from each other's hair.  Gross and yet so interesting.

Let's Explore this Further (or is it Farther?)

Here's another one of those pesky word pairs that tends to get mixed up by a lot of well-meaning folks.  When do you use "further" and when is "farther" the correct word to use?  (And, no, it's never "Happy Farther's Day")

This jockey is riding farther (and faster)
 than anticipated!

So it's pretty easy, actually.  "Farther" is correct when you are talking about an physical, measurable distance (as in, Her car is parked farther away than mine).

"Further" should be used when you are talking about additional time, quantities or degrees (as in, We need to discuss this word pair further to be totally clear on it).

I keep the two straight by using the "far" in farther to remind me that that one relates to distance.  We ran farther than she did.  The sun is farther from the Earth than is the moon.

Have any further comments or questions, please share them below!

Lay or Lie? -- or Just Losing my Mind!?

This has been driving me nuts for years.  Before reading any further, ask yourself, "Do I really know the difference between the words lay and lie?"  If you're like me, laying/lying (?) in bed, having trouble sleeping at night, not knowing if you are using the words properly, prepare to get a good night's rest.  Here's the story that I learned after doing a little research.

"Lay" is a transitive verb.  That means it must have some sort of action and is always followed by an object which receives the action.  "Lay" means to place something.  I lay my bag on the table.  (The action is me placing, and the object is my bag.)  If you did it yesterday, you laid your bag on the table.  You may also have laid many bags on many tables.

"Lie" is intransitive and means to recline.  It doesn't need an object to receive the action.  The boy lies down.  (The boy is the subject, and he's reclining, but there's no object receiving anything.)  Here's where it get confusing: the past tense of lie is lay.  So, the boy lay down yesterday.  He has lain down each day this week.

Try to fill in the blanks with either: lay, laid, lie, lay or lain.
1.  I was exhausted last night, so I ______ down for a quick nap.
2.  She ______ the baby in the crib each evening.
3.  Every morning this week, the dog has _____ on the concrete floor to cool off.
4.  My mom _______ the cards on the table.
5.  The cat _______ still waiting for the mouse to move.


ANSWERS:
1.  lay
2.  lay(s)
3.  lain
4.  laid
5.  lie(s)

How'd you do?