A Word, Please: How this simple word can be intimidating
Maybe that's why I find the word a little intimidating. I never use it, partly because its definition is confusing, but mostly because its past tense is terrifying.
Today I belie, yesterday I belay? Belaid? Belied? And what about in its -ing form? Beling? Belieing? I never know. That's ironic when you consider how well-versed I am in the past forms of 'lie' and 'lay.' Today I lie, yesterday I lay, in the past I have lain. Today I lay the book on the table, yesterday I laid the book on the table, in the past I have laid the book on the table. I've written about 'lie' and 'lay' so many times I no longer have to look them up.
But for 'belie' … well, better to just avoid the word altogether than to botch its past tense. At least, that's how I've been operating. That changes today, starting with some good news for anyone who's ever struggled to figure out the past form of a verb: Definite answers — not just opinions that amateurs post on the internet — are always handy.
Open any major dictionary, digital or physical, turn to any irregular verb, and the first thing you see after the entry word will tell you how to conjugate it in every form. For example, in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, after the entry for 'begin,' you see in bold 'began, begun, beginning.'
Dictionaries list the simple past tense, 'began,' first, followed by the past participle, 'begun.' The easiest way to understand past participles is to think of them as the forms that go with 'have': I have begun. For a lot of verbs, there's no difference between the past participle and the regular past tense, which is why you say, 'I laid the book on the table' and also 'I have laid the book on the table.' In those cases, the dictionary lists only the one past form, 'laid,' indicating that it serves as both.
For past forms of 'belie,' Merriam-Webster's lists only 'belied.' So that's the past tense, 'Her gentleness belied her strength,' and the past participle, 'Her gentleness has belied her strength.' Not as difficult as I feared. The progressive participle, 'belying,' seems pretty easy now that I realize the obvious: that 'belie' is more closely related to the 'lie' that means to deceive than to the 'lie' that means to recline. And we all know how to conjugate that type of lying: Today I lie, yesterday I lied, in the past I have lied, I am lying. 'Belie' mirrors that.
The definition of 'belie,' though, is another matter. It's confusing.
The main definition is to give a false impression of something, as in Merriam's example, 'Her gentleness belies her strength.' But the secondary definition is 'to show something to be false or wrong,' as in, 'The evidence belies their claims of innocence.'
In other words, it can mean to conceal a truth or to reveal a truth.
Some experts disavow this second definition. 'The word does not mean 'to disclose or reveal,' as is sometimes thought,' writes Garner's Modern American Usage. 'That is, some writers wrongly think of it in a sense almost antithetical to sense 1.'
It's always unfortunate when a word has a secondary definition that contradicts its main definition. (Read the full dictionary entry for the word 'literally' and you'll see what I mean.) So even though 'belie' is easy to put in the past tense, I'll continue not using it in any tense.
— June Casagrande is the author of 'The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.' She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
19-07-2025
- CBS News
Neighbors on alert after 5-foot-long lizard escapes home in Massachusetts
Police say a 5-foot-long water monitor lizard escaped from a home in Webster, Massachusetts on Friday. Now they're looking for it and so is the entire neighborhood. It isn't your typical neighborhood watch. Neighbors are on alert after Webster Animal Control says the reptile escaped from its pet owner on Blueberry Lane, leaping out of a second-floor window, according to neighbors. "It's crazy, like I can't even put my head to it, it's scary," said neighbor Giana Holland. "I looked out the window and the back window in the back of that house like the screen is busted open because it jumped out of the screen and off of the roof this morning," said neighbor Olivia Williams. Police say the leaping lizard got loose while someone was house sitting and opened the window. Even for Webster Police it's a first. "This is a first in my 29 years in law enforcement," said Chief Michael Shaw. "Just when we thought we had seen it all, we came across a missing water monitor." Police say the owner got it from New Hampshire about 2-3 weeks ago, but Massachusetts Environmental Police say it's illegal to have this type of reptile in Massachusetts unless you have a permit, which police say this homeowner did not. "There's a certain reason we can't have these and there's a certain responsibility that go with being a pet owner," said Chief Shaw. "As a pet owner you are responsible for it, so in the end we need to take that responsibility just like we do with our children, very seriously." Not even a drone from first responders could spot the creature. Neighbors say they've helped searched for other lizards in the past. "I just went on a loop, and I didn't really see much, I was hoping to see some action, but I didn't," said neighbor Joey Gajewski. Experts say water monitors love to travel, go up trees and they especially love water. "I'm like scared because I don't want it to end up in my pool, but honestly I think it's cool that they do that, but I don't know it's a little concerning," said Willams. Concerning enough that neighbors are watching their steps and pets closely. "I just think it's crazy that's all and I'm not walking in the woods," said neighbor Ann Annese. Experts say these lizards are generally not dangerous to humans, but don't try to corral them if you spot them. WBZ reached out to the lizard's owner. They really want to find the lizard, but they requested their privacy.
Los Angeles Times
17-07-2025
- Los Angeles Times
A Word, Please: Singular vs. plural? That's the question
A friend emailed recently to ask about the grammar on a T-shirt that read: 'The only minority destroying the country are the billionaires.' His question: 'Am I wrong or is the grammar on her T-shirt wrong? I've looked it up and checked it online and can't find a definitive answer.' He didn't mention what the grammar issue was, but in my view, there could be only one: the word 'are,' a plural verb, instead of the singular verb 'is.' If 'minority' is a singular noun, then you can't use a plural verb with it. That would be the equivalent of saying 'The dog are in the house' or 'Maria are here.' Classic subject-verb agreement problem. But is it? Like my friend, whom I'll call Richard because that's his name, I looked it up. I must have given Richard good advice in years past, because he apparently is part of the small minority who knows you can find answers to tricky plural-vs.-singular questions in the dictionary. For example, look up the word 'ethics,' skim a few lines and you'll see the note 'often used in plural, but singular or plural in construction.' So, using Merriam's examples, you can say: 'Ethics is his chosen field of study,' or you can say, 'The ethics of reuse and upcycling were imbued in the creation of all the pieces.' 'Is' in the first example is singular. 'Were' in the second example is plural. Both are correct. And that's the kind of help you can often find in a dictionary. Often, not always. Merriam's entry for 'minority' doesn't have any helpful notes about whether it's singular or plural. I don't even see them give any examples in which 'minority' is the subject of a verb, so we can't draw a good inference from the dictionary's 'minority' entry. I looked in my other reference books, too, including the usage guide Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, which usually has the answers I'm looking for. But not this time. No entry for 'minority.' Checking the issue online, as Richard did, seems like a reasonable approach. You can get some good information that way. You can also get a bucket of nonsense. And you can't know which is which. Automatically generated AI Overview answers often prove AI isn't as 'I' as it thinks it is. I've seen it give a lot of stupid answers to all kinds of questions. Recently, it told me that a certain disease affects less than 1 in a million Americans, 'which is less than 1%.' Gee, thanks, Google. Searching for 'is it minority is or minority are' on the search engine, the first hit is their AI Overview, and the rest of the first page is filled with answers from message forums, where you can expect random users to be right almost as often as AI is. But I knew from experience that there could be another way to tackle this problem. I have, in the past, written about whether 'majority' takes a singular or plural verb. I found the answer not in a dictionary but in a usage guide, Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, which says: 'Majority is a singular noun in frequent use as one of those collectives that take either a singular or plural verb depending on the writer's notion of the majority as a unit or as a collection of individuals.' You can say 'the majority is unified on this issue' or 'the majority are fighting among themselves.' Depending on your meaning, either the singular or the plural interpretation can work. Can we apply that logic to the word 'minority' and treat it as a singular or plural as we see fit? In the absence of a more knowledgeable source, I'll make the call. Yes, we can. June Casagrande is the author of 'The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.' She can be reached at JuneTCN@
Indianapolis Star
09-07-2025
- Indianapolis Star
Born into Jim Crow, she lived to witness DEI debates
Lexie Webster died in her sleep June 24. The simple recording of that date, in this newspaper and as a matter of public record, is a final testament to a life's journey from marginalization to dignity. Webster was born June 20, 1929, a time when no White person could be bothered to take notice of a Black baby entering American society. "Racial discrimination shaped my earliest days," Webster wrote in a 28-page reflection on her life, which she updated just days before her death. "My mother had no doctor or midwife to assist her, and when it came time to obtain my birth certificate, a physician wouldn't issue one until five days after my actual birth." As Webster grew up, she made people notice. Her five-octave voice range. Her college degree at age 20. Her sip at the "White's Only" drinking fountain. Her home purchase in a White Indianapolis neighborhood. Her decades-long career as an Indianapolis Public Schools teacher. Her marriage — a "tapestry woven with ups and downs," as she put it — to Russell Webster, a notable jazz musician, who died in 2007. Webster lived a life that was not afforded to Black women born 96 years ago. She did it by bearing the psychological burden of entering places where she was not welcome and refusing to leave. An irony of Webster's life is that she lived long enough to follow the contemporary debates over diversity, equity and inclusion that treated her existence as a historic artifact. Webster had first-hand experiences with policies and prejudices limiting where she could attend school, work, dine out and live. Yet, in recent months, conservatives have upended society over wokeness fatigue, a view that racial barriers and discrimination occurred much too long ago to hold relevance. "She could see the ludicrous hypocrisy and people wanting to blame planes coming down on (DEI)," Kym Webster, Lexie's daughter and one of five children, told me. "It really maddened her, because the only thing standing between a Black person with an education and a determination to be successful are opportunities. If you deny them opportunities to display that excellence, it's kind of like cutting off a plant at its roots before it even has a chance to show you that it's a strong tree." Webster's excellence emerged in the context of societally imposed limitations. She graduated early from Crispus Attucks High School and went to Knoxville College, a historically Black college, where she sang on the radio with the choir and studied education. After college, Webster worked for 10 years at an Indianapolis jewelry store where, she said, she was only allowed to handle repairs and engravings in the back, where she couldn't be seen by White customers. Webster began a 36-year teaching career with IPS in 1963, eventually completing a master's degree in elementary education from Indiana University, a "milestone that filled me with quiet pride." More often, Webster exhibited quiet defiance, pushing back against the constraints society placed on her. Webster's memoir recounts the constant costs of insisting on her self-worth. There was the time she rode a Greyhound bus in 1947. A driver told her to sit in the back, but all the rear seats were occupied. "I refused to stand in the aisle like some second-class citizen," Webster wrote. "His solution? Stop the bus entirely, leaving me to face the glares of impatient passengers. The law was on my side — interstate buses weren't supposed to enforce segregation — but law and justice often travel separate roads." In a "curious and bold" outing with friends during college, Webster decided to drink from a White fountain "just to see if the water tastes different." Her takeaway? "Tastes like water to me." Pushing boundaries led her to break down barriers — often only to see new ones erected. Webster's family became the first Black homeowners on their block in Mapleton-Fall Creek in 1963, but only after two sellers refused to accept their offers. "The third, a man who supported Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Washington, welcomed us as buyers," Webster wrote. Others did not. "Stockade fences went up on either side of our house, and most (neighbors) kept their distance." Kym Webster, who was a toddler when they moved into that house, grew up with fear of making a wrong move. "We were very, very careful not to allow a ball or anything to roll into a neighbor's yard," she told me. Kym Webster recalls being the only Black family on the block until the 1990s. Eventually, her mother wrote, "we built bridges." The Websters were a power couple of sorts, with Lexie active in opera circles and Russell being part of the Indiana Avenue jazz legacy. Russell was known as the "Whistling Postman." Lexie discussed her husband's music career in a remarkably sharp and vibrant WFYI interview at age 94. Lexie was at least equally accomplished. Her brief memoir is steeped in gratitude, yet conveys a determination to live an exceptional life. "I've always believed in the wisdom of generational wealth — holding on to what's ours so that it can benefit those who come after us," she wrote. Webster secured that wealth. Not only in terms of personal possessions, but also by breaking down racial barriers in everyday settings and making the path easier for others. She didn't necessarily record any historic firsts, beyond integrating Mapleton-Fall Creek, but she was part of a generation of Black Americans who demanded to be fully American in public, education, culture and the workplace. While DEI critics argue the U.S. achieved equality long ago, Lexie's life story proves how recently those barriers stood — and how much courage it took to tear them down. "If you yourself have never victimized anyone in that way, and you don't have a direct knowledge of someone who has, it's like it gives you license to believe it never has existed, or that the claims are very much exaggerated," Kym told me. The toll of persistence weighs heavily on Webster's writing — hard-earned words that were completed days, not decades, ago. Yet, through each story of struggle, Webster also gives the sense that she lived 96 years of pure delight. A child of Jim Crow America, whose birth didn't warrant the attention of a doctor, spent her final days in the neighborhood that once tried to shut her out. The scars of segregation remained on her heart. But they didn't define her. "I'm surrounded," Webster wrote, "by neighbors who care, family who love fiercely and a world that, despite its challenges, still holds so much beauty."
