A Small Quiz

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | 7:15

Here’s a small pop quiz for all you loyal readers. This quiz is sort of in conjunction with the Grammar Police post from earlier this week.

Which of these sentences are acceptable?

1) I lent him my favorite toaster oven on Thursday.
2) I loaned him my favorite toaster oven on Thursday.

Any ideas? The phrasing of my question should have tipped you off. Both of them are correct (hence my use of are in the question.) Many will tell you that loan cannot be used as a verb, but this is not true. Feel free to use loan as a verb as much as you want. It is completely interchangeable with lend. There is only one exception to this rule and that is in the figurative sense. Example: “Friends, Romans, countryment: lend me your ears!” Obviously you’re not going to give the speaker your ears, so using loan would not be correct.

Now that I’ve bored most of you… lesson over. :)

P.S. I found out something interesting about Mike when we discussed this topic. He uses borrowed in a way that doesn’t even sound right. For example, he would say this sentence is correct. “I borrowed Mike my copy of Friday Night Lights season one.” I guess people from the upper midwest use this phrasing a lot but it’s technically incorrect English. Interesting (at least to a nerd like me.)