Friends of Gabriel Chantayan

I lay awake last night (note: *lay*, the past tense of *lie*, to recline; do not confuse with *lay*, the transitive verb meaning to place, whose past tense is *laid*, a distinction most of you will ignore). I lay there reciting the conjugations like a lullaby for the insomniac grammarian: lie, lay, lain; lay, laid, laid. My father, the man who contributed *less* people to the evening's linguistic tally, would say I was "laying" in bed, of course, as though I were depositing myself there like a parcel on a post office counter At least Babcia's 1974 letters understood the subjunctive. If only the rest of this forum did. -- GV

you said "less people" in your own grammar thread lololol