(Grammar) Rules were made to be broken

Is there such a thing as correct English? Most of the time, I'm a believer in upholding correct English usage. I work at Spot on after all. :-) We want to make sure you get nothing but the best here to help your language-learning efforts.

But I've been starting to wonder. I saw this great video using the words of British comedian and word-lover Stephen Fry.

Watching this video made me think of all you out there, doing your best to learn English. It also made me wish I could show the video to my 11-year-old self, when I suffered one of my most humiliating moments in learning English.

My grandmother - I love her dearly - used to be a real stickler for the CORRECT use of English grammar. In fact, she was the one who taught me why you can't say things like "Sally and me went to the cinema."

But when I was 11, my grandmother picked me and some of my siblings up to go somewhere. We were in the car, and while talking, I messed up. Either I said "lie" when I should have said "lay", or the other way around. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I do remember feeling like a nuclear bomb had gone off in the car. OK, maybe it wasn't that bad, but for the rest of the ride, I (and everybody else in the car) was lectured on the difference between these two verbs, and how UNGRAMMATICAL it is to use one when you should use the other.

Can I tell you a secret? I still don't care about the difference between "lie" and "lay". I don't think I ever will. Yes, it is important to know the basic grammar rules. You don't want to make mistakes on a test or when you're writing an English-paper. But sometimes, rules are there to be broken. I hope you have some fun with your English today!