AussieSpeak – further, lie, towards, dependent and dependant

Further and farther
In Australian and New Zealand English, farther is not very common. We use further to mean both ‘at a greater distance’ and ‘in addition, more, moreover’.

     How much further to go?
     We need to investigate further.

Farther is used more in the US where many writers split the meanings, saying farther relates to distance and further to ‘in addition, more, moreover’.

     How much farther to go?
     We need to investigate further.

Lay and lie
Lay, lady, lay, across my big brass bed. (Australians would say ‘Lie lady lie…’.)
He laid down on the bed and cried. (Australians would say ‘He lay down…’.)

In British (and Australian and NZ) English, lie is an intransitive verb, i.e. doesn’t take an object (you can’t lie something) and its past tense is lay: ‘we lay down an hour ago’. (When lie means to tell an untruth, the past tense is lied.)

The verb lay in the present tense is transitive, i.e. takes an object, ‘please lay the table’, and its past tense is laid: ‘she laid the table an hour ago’.

Also, Americans say ‘the lay of the land’ whereas Australians say ‘the lie of the land’, though lay has always been permissible and is creeping in more and more.

toward and towards
Toward and towards can be used interchangeably, but Americans tend to use toward, and Australians, towards.

dependant and dependent
In Australian and New Zealand spelling, dependant is a noun and means someone who depends on support from others. This support often has a financial component.

     The child is a dependant.

Dependent is an adjective and means relying on.

     The outcome is dependent on the test results.

American spelling uses dependent for both meanings. Much simpler!

About Mary Morel
Mary Morel is the founder of Online Writing Training and works with organisations to improve the quality of their board papers. Online Writing Training offers online writing courses.