Showing posts with label change-in-progress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label change-in-progress. Show all posts

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Lay low

'Lay low' is what people tell you to do when you're sick, which means to rest and do as little as possible. However, this is a change-in-progress, because people lie and things lay. But it would sound quite odd to hear a native speaker of American English say, "Lie low."

Example:
-I feel awful. I have a fever, a stuffed up nose and a terrible cough.
-You'd better lay low for the next few days. Hope you feel better!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

None of my friends are going.

"None of my friends are going" is a very common mistake in spoken American English; you almost never hear it said correctly anymore.

The correct sentence should be, "None of my friends IS going," because 'none' is the subject and 'of my friends' is a prepositional phrase and therefore not the subject. But Americans usually match the verb to whatever's closest to it, subject or not.

Example:
-Are you going to the dance Friday night?
-I don't think so, Mom. None of my friends are going.