Grammar Tips

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Five Quick Fixes

Lie and Lay

Quick fix:

I remember Lie and Lie by saying -

(Lie is subjective, lay is objective):

L-i-e is what I do. La-y is what I do to an-y-thing else.
I lie down, but the hen lays an egg. Or think of "getting laid" - there are two people involved, a subject and an object ;-)

(Lie is present tense, lay is past tense):

Lie is what I do today, la-y is what I did y-esterday. Unless I lied about it.

Advice and advise

Quick fix:

You may need to say this one out loud for the first few times until you get used to the sound in your mind.

Advice sounds like ICE – Ice is a thing, a noun – and so is Advice.
You can only make this “ice” sound with a “c”, not an “s”.

Advise sounds like IZE – Z is close to V for Verb – Advise is a verb.
You can get a “z” sound from an “s” but not from a “c”.

Affect and Effect

Quick fix:

I remember Affect and Effect by using the acronym AV (Audio Visual) - I think of my video recorder. Affect (A) is the Verb (V).

It’s and its

Quick fix 1:

The apostrophe on “it’s” looks like the dot of the missing i - so if the sentence goes "it is" then I need to use "it’s". If "it is" doesn't fit, then it must be "its".

Quick fix 2:

Replace “its” with “his” – does it fit? There is no apostrophe in “his”, so if “his” fits the sentence, there should be no apostrophe in “its”.

Stationary and stationery

Quick fix:

I remember stationary and stationery by saying:

A-eroplanes are station-a-ry but E-nvelopes are station-e-ry.

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