Post edited 11:21AM – Mar-16-09 by Grant Barrett

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If English isn't your first language, there are lots of ways to learn it, such as memorizing Barack Obama's speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention. Martha and Grant talk about some of the unusual ways foreigners are learning to speak English. Also, a golfer wonders if it's ever proper to say "I'm going golfing" rather than "I'm going to play golf." And they share an easy way to remember the difference between lie and lay.

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Here's the The New Yorker article about Crazy English that Grant mentions.

Why do aviators say "roger" to indicate they've received a message? A pilot phones the show about that, "wilco," and similar language.

For some golfers, the phrase "go golfing" is as maddening as a missed two-foot putt. The proper expression, they insist, is play golf. A longtime golfer wonders whether that's true.

He's sharp as the corner of a round table. She's so sad she's pulling a face as long as a fiddle. If startling similes leaving you grinning like a basket full of possum heads, you'll love the book Intensifying Similes in English, published in 1918. It's available at no cost on the Internet Archive.

Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a game called "Odd One Out," the object of which is to guess which of four words doesn't belong with the rest. Try this one: dove, job, polish, some.

"Yo!" Why did people ever start using the word yo! to get someone's attention? Grant explains that in English there's mo' than one yo.

It's one of the biggest grammatical bugaboos of all, the one that bedevils even the most earnest English students: "Is it lie or lay?" Martha shares a trick for remembering the difference. See below for her clip-and-save chart of these verbs. Print it out and tape it to your computer. Better yet, laminate it and carry it in your wallet at all times. And if you choose to tattoo it onto some handy part of your body, by all means send us a photo so we can post it on the site.

How are things in your "neck of the woods"? And why heck do we say neck?

Grant reads a few lines from a favorite poem: "A New Song of New Similes" by John Gay. It also appears in the front of the book Intensifying Similes in English linked above.

In this week's installment of Slang This!, the president of the
National Puzzlers’ League tries to pick out the slang terms from a list that includes poguey, pushover, noodles, and naff.

In a 1936 episode of Jack Benny's radio show, a woman says that her father sprained his ankle the night before while "truckin’." This has an A Way with Words listener confused; she thought trucking was a term from the 1970s. Grant clears up the mystery, and along the way inspires Martha to bust some moves.

Grant explains the connection between "sauce" and "don't sass me."

Why do some people pronounce the word "wash" as warsh? Martha and Grant discuss the so-called "intrusive R" and why it makes people say "warsh" instead of "wash" and "Warshington" instead of "Washington."

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Martha's Handy-Dandy, Clip-and-Save Chart for "Lie" and "Lay"

Lie — to "repose or recline"

• Present Tense — Today I lie on the couch.
• Past Tense — Yesterday I lay on the couch for two hours.
• Part Participle — Every day this week, I have lain on the couch for two hours.

Lay — to "put or place"

• Present Tense — He lay his checkbook on the table.
• Past Tense — Yesterday he laid his checkbook on the table.
• Part Participle — Every day this week, he has laid his checkbook on the table.

…
Read the original blog post.

You know, we've received a ton of email about the "golf/golfer/golfing" question, and so many of them have to do with what's logical, or should be. But it seems to me this whole discussion isn't about logic, it's about tradition. And there's a tradition among golfers of a certain age to say it one way, and if you don't, you're marked as an outsider by their standards.

As a veteran of many physical therapy sessions and yoga classes I have given up on the lay/lie problem. My stomach churns so much at every yoga class I go to that I sometimes wonder if the benefits of the yoga are completely offset by being told to “lay” on my back.

Peter, I hear you. Dog-training classes were particularly painful as well for me for the same reason.

>>>Not that it actually corrected my grammar. I’m sure my poor old teacher would have a stroke to hear me combine all forms and tenses into the generic “liedown” for people and “laydown” for things.<<<

I don't blame you, harmonicpies. I can see why that teacher's advice would have been confusing.