You ever fall in love? Well, the other day I fell in the Cold Stone parking lot. I was keeping my eyes on my true love and failed to detect a small concrete ledge...a cold stone as it were...and ended up flying head first into the door.
I lay there for a bit. Or is it laid there for a bit? Or lied? Time to interrupt this story with an English lesson.
Ah, the English language. It’s so full of extraneous words and rules, so fantastically complicated and confusing. One of the many common misunderstandings within the language stems from the confusion between lay and lie.
Lay is a verb that commonly means “to put or set (something) down.” Lie is a verb that commonly means “to be in or to assume a horizontal position” (or “to make an untrue statement,” but we’ll focus on the first definition). In other words, lay takes a direct object, and lie does not. As for the misconceptions, well, when you look at the two verbs next to each other in different tenses, it becomes a bit more obvious where the confusion is.
Present Tense:
Lay: Unfold the blanket and lay it on the floor.
Lie: This stuff is pretty groundbreaking; you’d better lie down.
The difference in the present tense seems pretty straightforward: lay refers to a direct object, and lie does not.
Past Tense:
Lay: She laid the blanket on the floor when I asked.
Lie: I felt sick, so I lay down.
Here’s where it can get a bit tricky. The past tense of lie is lay, but not because there is any overlap between the two verbs. So when you say, “I lay down for a nap,” you’re actually using the verb lie, not lay, despite the way it sounds.
Past Participle:
Lay: She had laid the blanket down before she left.
Lie: I had lain there for some time before getting up.
The past participle form is a common point of error. Many people accidentally use lied instead of lain when using the verb lie. Lied, however, refers to the past tense and past participle form of lie when it means “to make an untrue statement.”
Present participle:
Lay: I was laying the blanket on the floor.
Lie: You’ve been lying down all day.
Your best bet when deciding between the variations of lay and lie is to determine whether there is a direct object you’re referring to. If there is, then use a form of lay. A classroom trick is to say the word out loud. The a sound in lay sounds like the one in place, as in to place an object, whereas the i sound in lie sounds like the one in recline, as in to recline on a sofa. Another way to help you decide is to remember that lay will typically be followed by a noun, whereas lie will typically be followed by the word down.
I lay there for a bit. Or is it laid there for a bit? Or lied? Time to interrupt this story with an English lesson.
Ah, the English language. It’s so full of extraneous words and rules, so fantastically complicated and confusing. One of the many common misunderstandings within the language stems from the confusion between lay and lie.
Lay is a verb that commonly means “to put or set (something) down.” Lie is a verb that commonly means “to be in or to assume a horizontal position” (or “to make an untrue statement,” but we’ll focus on the first definition). In other words, lay takes a direct object, and lie does not. As for the misconceptions, well, when you look at the two verbs next to each other in different tenses, it becomes a bit more obvious where the confusion is.
Present Tense:
Lay: Unfold the blanket and lay it on the floor.
Lie: This stuff is pretty groundbreaking; you’d better lie down.
The difference in the present tense seems pretty straightforward: lay refers to a direct object, and lie does not.
Past Tense:
Lay: She laid the blanket on the floor when I asked.
Lie: I felt sick, so I lay down.
Here’s where it can get a bit tricky. The past tense of lie is lay, but not because there is any overlap between the two verbs. So when you say, “I lay down for a nap,” you’re actually using the verb lie, not lay, despite the way it sounds.
Past Participle:
Lay: She had laid the blanket down before she left.
Lie: I had lain there for some time before getting up.
The past participle form is a common point of error. Many people accidentally use lied instead of lain when using the verb lie. Lied, however, refers to the past tense and past participle form of lie when it means “to make an untrue statement.”
Present participle:
Lay: I was laying the blanket on the floor.
Lie: You’ve been lying down all day.
Your best bet when deciding between the variations of lay and lie is to determine whether there is a direct object you’re referring to. If there is, then use a form of lay. A classroom trick is to say the word out loud. The a sound in lay sounds like the one in place, as in to place an object, whereas the i sound in lie sounds like the one in recline, as in to recline on a sofa. Another way to help you decide is to remember that lay will typically be followed by a noun, whereas lie will typically be followed by the word down.
Yeah, that was kind of wordy up there. Perhaps these charts will make it easier.
Ah, I think I have it now. I laid there for a bit, and when my senses came back to me I knew all there was to know about laying and lying. No...I am not lying! Anyway, I finally got up and went in and purchased my wife a caramel apple. She deserves it. She claims that she didn't trip me...and my memory on the whole thing is kind of fuzzy. Like a peach...and she is my peach!
Have a great week. Don't just lie around!
Nice job explaining it all. I avoid the subject by saying, "I took a nap." :) What happened to the ice cream?
ReplyDeleteLayman Lawrence Lay, of the congregational laity at Saint Ladislas Catholic church,
ReplyDeletelightly laying a long lei on the Hawaiian casket in Lanai, did then lay down and begin to chant,
"Lay lady, lay..."