Good morning all!
Yes, I am still around and working behind the scenes to bring you a new story. Okay, I know I gave you all a little snippet of a ghost story I was working on, but that went on ice. Then I started a new story and again… it went on ice.
So, the story that I’m working on now and is into chapter six, will be progressing good, and I will shortly start posting it.
BUT. That is not the reason that I am writing you today. No, I had some good laughs doing research for the story and came upon a piece of info that had me laughing so hard, my wife had to give me sugar water to calm me down. Let me tell you.
I know that I’m not an authority on English. Nope, I leave that stuff for my editors. So, I came across this article on the internet about a teen boy that was caught out “skip Lagging” by American Airlines. I’m not going into the pros and cons of skip lagging, although I found that my one editor also did not know what skip lagging is.
During the debate that followed the article, someone said: “… payed for the ticket.”
Then some other guy jumped on the bandwagon and nit picked the first guy for using “payed” instead of “paid.” He alleged that “payed” is a nautical term. With that in mind, yours truly went and internet searched the term. And yes, it is true. “She ‘paid’ for renting the boat, and then went and ‘payed’ out the line that kept the yacht secured to the dock.”
BarneyR, Rvbuilder and Grumpyoldsquid, have you guys came across that nautical term? (Email me.)
In this context it is used correctly, as per Google. I asked my one editor what’s his take on it. He told me he never heard the term. So, together we investigated, and I was satisfied that the term “payed” is to be used in a nautical environment.
Then my editor send me a link to an article by Grammarly, on the net, that explained this. And low and behold! The article do give the right description of the “Paid” vs “Payed” scenario, BUT, here is where I had a fit of laughter: In their examples they made a little HUGE mistake! They give the CORRECT usage of the term as “She PAID out the line so that it slacked…” Huh? Paid instead of payed? The object of the whole article? Now! Does this prove that Grammarly can also make mistakes? Why pick on little old me?
So, who do I trust and PRAY that I don’t fall “PREY” to the nit-pickers that criticise my spelling? (LOL!!!)
There’s over 150 dialects of English spoken in the world. In the USA alone there're 3 dialects of English spoken. Even with words that sound the same, but have different meanings.
BTW: “PAYED” also refer to the covering, or weather guarding, something. “She PAID John after he PAYED the deck of the boat for her.”
(I’ll use that part in my new story and see who takes me on about it. LOL.)
Have a happy day!
Bye 4 now!