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ImageSMART TALK
by Dr. Les Terse



LEND/LOAN: The Institute for the Linguistically Impaired recently included JoAnn Tiedemann on the panel for a weekend workshop at Warriner House.  Underbelly, Texas, is a long way from Ms Tiedemann's home in Madison, Wisconsin, but we wanted to fly her down and reserve the best room at the Hotel Inn for her.  After all, she gave us a valuable diagnostic tool.

We discovered that the lend/loan word pair makes a perfect test for placement of advanced, relatively fluent patients.  We had tried to use the that/which pair, but find it more reliable as a criterion for graduation with honors.

Some folks may have been loaning books to each other for years, but those who actually learn from reading the books lend them.  When you get a loan, someone lends you money.

To the linguistically unimpaired, loan is always a noun.  You can look it up.  I'll lend you my dictionary.  Any good dictionary - like mine, of course - will acknowledge the use of loan as a verb by the same people who say ain't.

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