A Word, Please: 5 language resolutions for the new year

Even if you know a lot about grammar, there’s always more to learn. The most common modal auxiliary verbs are “must,” “can,” “should,” “would,” “may” and “might.” They’re similar to the two regular auxiliary verbs — “be” and “have” — in that they team up with other verbs. If that’s not advanced enough for you, memorize the past forms of both “lie” and “lay.” For the most proper use of “lie,” the simple past is “lay”, and the past participle is “lain”. You’d never say, “Thanks for visiting I” or “Send the memo to I,” so why do you say, “Thanks for visiting Beth and I” and “Send the memo to Tom and I”? The object of a verb or a preposition doesn’t change form just because it’s more than one person: Try dropping the other person from your sentence to see whether “I” or “me” works alone.