Toward or towards? Anyway, the correct word is...

Both. This one has bugged me for a long time, and when it came to writing a blog entry about it, I would forget it over and over and kick myself for not writing the topic down somewhere so I wouldn't forget it. I've checked a few different sources, and it seems that the consensus is that these words are interchangeable, only that towards is used more in Britain and toward is more common in the US. What does that mean for Canadians? Sadly, it means the same old confused method of expressing ourselves with a combination of US and British English. Since both are correct, my rule of thumb is that you should just pick your preferred version of the word, and stick with it. I just finished proofreading a document that combined the use of both, sometimes even within the same paragraph, and that looked really odd.

Anyway, I thought the answer would be more like anyway where the use of anyways is actually not correct; only anyway is the correct term, but apparently toward and towards are not analogous.

Talking about eye conditions...

I went for an eye exam (regular check up) on Friday and started pondering the word "astigmatism"--not that I have it--but I always hear people saying "I have astigmatism." I always think they don't know it's one word and not "a stigmatism", but then I thought how people say "I have glaucoma" or "I have cataracts." Maybe it's more grammatically correct to describe the condition rather than saying "I have an astigmatism," but unfortunately I can't get inside people's heads to figure out what they know or don't know about the terminology. Ahh...the ponderings of grammer geek-hood!

Lay down Sally! (The difference between laying and lying)

Another word I've heard used incorrectly quite a bit is the word "lay down" or "laying down". People generally mean "lie down" or "lying down", but they evidently don't realise that.

To lie down is a verb that means a person or animal is somehow resting horizontally on a surface, be it a mattress, a sofa, or a bed of straw, or other type of surface.  To lay or to lay down are simply not verbs at all, at least not on their own.

I frequently hear people say things like "I was laying on the sofa for a while", or a really popular one is to tell your dog "Go lay down!" Neither of these is correct.  They should say "I was lying on the sofa for a while" and "Go lie down!"

The reason for this is that lying does not require a direct object, whereas laying does. For example:

I'm going to lie down for a nap.

You should lay the book down on the table first.

In the first sentence, you are describing, using verbs, what you will do.  In the second sentence, "the book" is the direct object--you are actually doing something with an object.

Where it becomes complicated is when you switch to past tense.  The verb "to lie" is an irregular verb and takes on the form "lay" in the past tense.  So you wouldn't say "I lied down for a nap" but "I lay down for a nap".

The past tense of "lay" is "laid". So "I laid the book down on the table before going out".

To add to all the fun, the past participle of "lie" is "lain", so "I had lain down for a nap, but the doorbell broke my slumber".

The past participle of "lay" is the same the past tense, "laid", so "I had laid the book down on the table before I went out, and now I can't find it!"

In my examples, I've used both verbs with the preposition "down", but that is not always required.  Consider,

It was lying around here somewhere (not, it was laying around here somewhere)

or

Lay the rocks over the dirt (not, lie the rocks over the dirt)

These are fun verbs to ponder if you're a grammar geek like me.  I researched this information some time ago because I was curious to know if lain and laid were British and American grammar differences in past participles and past tense, and I learned that I didn't actually realise there was much of a difference between lay and lie, so I was happy I had looked into it.

Are you begging the question correctly?

I was guilty of not using this phrase correctly either. Someone corrected me several years ago, and now it has become one of my biggest pet peeves even though I can't claim I always knew how to use it properly. I get that not everyone is going to understand how to use "beg the question" in the right situation, but I do find it frustrating when I watch shows like The Big Bang Theory, where the genius Sheldon often corrects people's grammar, and yet the show has actually had characters using that phrase incorrectly (as well as "the reason is because", but that's for another entry!).

The question here affects not so much grammar as semantics. The verb "to beg the question" is actually a term from philosophy, more specifically the study of logic. "Begging the question" is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself. When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any evidence to demonstrate why the statement is true in the first place.

An example of this would be something like the following:

"Bob is trustworthy because I can trust him."

As you can see, this really isn't quality evidence or proof of Bob's trustworthiness. Moreover, you can also see that in begging the question, there is actually no question involved from a grammatical point of view. There is an implied question about the logic used in this statement, but no one is actually asking a question.

What happens in most cases is that people say "begs the question" when they mean "raises the question".

For example:


not


"The lack of snow removal on city streets begs the question, where are our property taxes going?" 

but

"The lack of snow removal on city streets raises the question, where are our property taxes going?"

The former statement is the one you would most typically hear, but it is definitely incorrect.

There's rarely a time when most of us would use "begging the question" in everyday conversation, so just remember, you're more than likely trying to say "raises the question".

What's the difference between...

There are a lot of homophones that I've wondered about because I've seen the spellings used interchangeably--or at least that's how it seemed.  I often chalk things up to British-American spelling differences, but I learned of a couple recently while proofreading a book that reminded me to actually look up these things rather than forgetting to do so.

The first word is "blonde" and "blond".  I did actually think that blonde is the correct spelling for no real reason, but it turns out there is difference when you use one as an adjective and one as a noun.  I'd use the e when it's a noun, as in That guy I met the other night was a blonde.  However, when I want to describe the hair colour, I'd have to spell it without the e, as in Her hair was short and blond.  My first mystery is solved!

The second word is "discrete" and "discreet".  The first spelling is the less common one and refers to separating or detaching from others and is the antonym to "continuous".  When I thought about it after seeing this definition, I realised I had most likely seen this word used a lot in the academic journal articles and textbooks I read in university because they would often refer to discrete units of things.  The latter spelling is the more common one we would use all the time when we're trying to be secretive or just covert about something.  One definition I read even stated that it means to judicious, cautious, discerning, and prudent.  Now I know the difference, and my second mystery is solved! It's actually a relief to me! ;o)

As assault on superlatives

I know I've talked about superlatives before, but really, Grammarly, a popular editing and proofreading company with a large following and active presence on Facebook,  committed one of my biggest pet peeves the other day.  They used the term "more clear" instead of "clearer."  There are really easy rules to follow regarding superlatives, as this little lesson demonstrates: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectivesuper.htm.  In common usage these days, I hear a lot of people using "most something" when it should be the -er or -est suffix to the root word.  It drives me bananas whenever I hear it, and what bugs me more is that I catch myself doing sometimes because I keep hearing it!

Of Chinese New Year and Ukrainian Christmas

I hear people were using the phrase Chinese New Year a lot.  It even gets abbreviated to CNY sometimes.   Recently, though, it dawned on me that this isn't actually the best terminology for this occasion, and it surprised me even more that in Canada, where people try to be politically correct to a fault, that no one has as yet taken up this cause.  The more correct phrase is actually Lunar New Year.  It's already known that Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, but thing is that many other Asian countries celebrate this event as well, meaning that it could be just as correct to call it Vietnamese New Year or even Singaporean New year, for that matter!  To incorporate all the countries that celebrate it, Lunar New Year is definitely a better option.  I assume the Chinese New Year name sticks because there are just so many Chinese, population-wise, that maybe that's just what you'll end up hearing more often anyway.

I also wonder if that same cause holds true for Ukrainian Christmas in Canada.  There are a lot of Ukrainians here, especially in the prairies, and they also celebrate Christmas according to a different calendar.  But it turns out that it's not just the Ukrainians that do it.  Any group of Orthodox believers or practitioners celebrate Christmas at the same time, and non-Ukrainians actually refer to it as Orthodox Christmas.  This holiday is celebrated by many other Eastern Europeans (as that's where you tend to find more Orthodox churches), but it's also celebrated by the Coptic Egyptians, who follow a lot of Orthodox practice.

I guess if no one's offended by the less generic terms, I'm not going to get too upset about it either.  It's just that I do find it a little odd that in Canada, we're not using the most politically correct terms for these holidays.