Time to capsize the mailbag, check the leftovers before the year checks out. Random notes like the lay-lie muddle, via Gillian Appleton: “I downloaded a relaxation app but had to delete it as the person presenting the techniques persisted in telling me to ‘lay down’. I found this confronting and not at all relaxing.” True dedication, Gillian, choosing grammatical purity over yogic serenity.

Lay is transitive, needing a direct object, just as chickens lay eggs, a waiter his table. By contrast, lie is intransitive. I lie down. Or you lay down, the past of lie, whether that’s in a hammock or cool bath, the recumbent object an optional detail. Elsewhere, readers objected to the rise of verbs as nouns – think reveal, disconnect and invite – just as others lamented nouns (goal and medal) impersonating verbs.

Still on verbs, Lawrie Robertson pondered renovate over reinstate thanks to a legal document. The issue was........

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