Common_Errors_in_English_usage

You lay down the book you've been reading, but you lie down when you go
to bed. In the present tense, if the subject is acting on some other
object, it's "lay." If the subject is lying down, then it's "lie." This
distinction is often not made in informal speech, partly because in the
past tense the words sound much more alike: "He lay down for a nap," but
"He laid down the law." If the subject is already at rest, you might
"let it lie." If a helping verb is involved, you need the past
participle forms. "Lie" becomes "lain" and "lay" becomes "laid.": "He
had just lain down for a nap," and "His daughter had laid the gerbil on
his nose."
LEACH/LEECH
Water leaches chemicals out of soil or color out of cloth, your
brother­in­law leeches off the family by constantly borrowing money to
pay his gambling debts (he behaves like a bloodsucking leech).
LEAD/LED
When you're hit over the head, the instrument could be a "lead" pipe.
But when it's a verb, "lead" is the present and "led" is the past tense.
The problem is that the past tense is pronounced exactly like the
above­mentioned plumbing material ("plumb" comes from a word meaning
"lead"), so people confuse the two. In a sentence like "She led us to
the scene of the crime," always use the three­letter spelling.
LEAST/LEST
American English keeps alive the old word "lest" in phrases like "lest
we forget," referring to something to be avoided or prevented. Many
people mistakenly substitute the more familiar word "least" in these
phrases.
LEAVE/LET
The colloquial use of "leave" to mean "let" in phrases like "leave me
be" is not standard. "Leave me alone" is fine, though.
LEGEND/MYTH
Myths are generally considered to be traditional stories whose
importance lies in their significance, like the myth of the Fall in
Eden; whereas legends can be merely famous deeds, like the legend of
Davy Crockett. In common usage "myth" usually implies fantasy. Enrico
Caruso was a legendary tenor, but Hogwarts is a mythical school. Legends
may or may not be true. But be cautious about using "myth" to mean
"untrue story" in a mythology, theology, or literature class, where
teachers can be quite touchy about insisting that the true significance
of a myth lies not in its factuality but in its meaning for the culture
which produces or adopts it.
LENSE/LENS
Although the variant spelling "lense" is listed in some dictionaries,