Please, loan him one, before he looses his mind.
Usage note from the American Heritage Dictionary:
The verb loan is well established in American usage and cannot be considered incorrect. The frequent objections to the form by American grammarians may have originated from a provincial deference to British critics, who long ago labeled the usage a typical Americanism. Loan is, however, used to describe only physical transactions, as of money or goods; for figurative transactions, lend is correct: Distance lends enchantment. The allusions lend the work a classical tone .
guizot
September 24, 2007, 10:17am
23
American Heritage Dictionary:
The verb loan is well established in American usage and cannot be considered incorrect. The frequent objections to the form by American grammarians may have originated from a provincial deference to British critics, who long ago labeled the usage a typical Americanism. Loan is, however, used to describe only physical transactions, as of money or goods; for figurative transactions, lend is correct: Distance lends enchantment. The allusions lend the work a classical tone.
This might explain why we have the two different words.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, loan me your ears!
Monty
September 24, 2007, 10:54am
25
Odd thing…I can’t seem to find verb listed in my dictionary under the category of verb. It’s listed solely as a noun. Loan , of course, is listed under both categories.
I think the verb form of verb is verbing.
Miscue:
Sorry to distract, but thought I’d ask while we’re on the subject of things that even All Things Considered folks get wrong on a regular basis. Am I a lunatic for insisting people use ‘there are’ instead of ‘there’s’? My wife and I feel like we’re there only two people on the planet who are still miffed by phrases like "there’s many courses of action availableto us’. Am I too much in the old school here (I think not, as we’re only 27)? Where’s the outrage? I even see most well-written posters on this board doing it.
You may be a lunatic- I can’t really say- but ‘there’s’ for ‘there are’ really irritates me. I want to ask them, “if you weren’t using the conjunction, how would you say it? ‘There is many courses of action?’”
Khadaji
September 24, 2007, 12:47pm
28
I thought it was verbulating.
Somebody Loan me a dime,
Am the only one with this tune in my head as I read this thread?
I’m glad, as lately I’ve been unable to stop verbing my noun.
Apparently the OP is aloan in his opinion.
Another usage that bugs me: “Hung,” as in, “Nathan Hale was hung.” No, sir. John Holmes was hung. Nathan Hale was hanged.
How do you know for certain that Nathan Hale wasn’t hung?
Miscue:
Sorry to distract, but thought I’d ask while we’re on the subject of things that even All Things Considered folks get wrong on a regular basis. Am I a lunatic for insisting people use ‘there are’ instead of ‘there’s’? My wife and I feel like we’re there only two people on the planet who are still miffed by phrases like "there’s many courses of action availableto us’. Am I too much in the old school here (I think not, as we’re only 27)? Where’s the outrage? I even see most well-written posters on this board doing it.
Actually, I find the drift to “there’s” rather interesting in that it directly parallels the Spanish hay which is used in both the singular and plural.
(“There’s” is also not a recent development. We got away using “there’s” as a translation in Spanish class for both the singular and plural over 35 years ago, and we used it because it was so prevalent in our normal conversation.)
With contraction: “There’s two of them.”
Works fine for me.
Trunk
September 24, 2007, 3:20pm
38
BrainGlutton:
Another usage that bugs me: “Hung,” as in, “Nathan Hale was hung.” No, sir. John Holmes was hung. Nathan Hale was hanged.
Are you just trolling or something?
Nathan Hale was hung. And I say that without any double entendric reference to his manhood.
stretch
September 24, 2007, 3:21pm
39
Can’t “there” be used singularly? There is only one way you will stop me from using there’s and that’s to show me that it cannot be used to reference a single item.
