Lagging Behind

Lagging Behind Lagging Behind Lagging Behind By Maeve Maddox A reader writes: I keep seeing this: â€Å"lacked considerably behind when what is meant is lagged considerably behind. When I went looking, I also found many examples of lacking where the context calls for lagging. Here are a few: Incorrect: Bad WPO ranking on most pages [are] lacking behind the top US healthcare sites Correct: Bad WPO ranking on most pages [are] lagging behind the top US healthcare sites Incorrect: Africa is clearly lacking behind [in foreign investment]. Correct: Africa is clearly lagging behind [in foreign investment]. Incorrect: Good research lacking behind fitness promises Correct: Good research lagging behind fitness promises The meaning of the verb lag in the idiom â€Å"to lag behind† is â€Å"to fail to keep pace with others.† Usually, the behind that follows lagging is a preposition that takes an object: One very controversial topic recently is how America is lagging far behind other nations in terms of quality of education.- Business Today. Sometimes â€Å"lagging behind† is used as a phrasal verb: U.S. lagging behind on gender equality.- CNN. The verb to lack means â€Å"to be deficient in quantity or degree.† For example: Customers with mental illness are lacking services due to decreased funding available to the local CMH. When your intended meaning is â€Å"to fail to maintain the desired speed of progress,† â€Å"to slacken the desired pace from weakness or sloth,† â€Å"to hang back,† â€Å"to fall behind,† or â€Å"to remain in the rear,† the idiom you want is â€Å"to lag behind.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comma After i.e. and e.g.Best Websites to Learn EnglishRite, Write, Right, Wright