![]() ![]() Simple right?ĭon’t worry we usually don’t remember either. VerbEdit makes ones bed and lies in it, present participle making ones bed and lying in it, simple past made ones bed and lay in it, past participle made. Your phone, with its star-gazing app will lay next to you, but your friend will come lie down beside you once she arrives. But the blanket itself will lay on the ground so you don’t get dirty. When the meteors come out at night, you’re going to go lie on a blanket and watch them shoot across the sky. It’s difficult to nail them all down - especially for someone who speaks English as a second or third language, so be sure to cut folks a little slack when they’ve been through enough already. English grammar is a curiosity in itself, with words that are spelled nearly the same having entirely different pronunciations: It’s good that you know what you’re doing now, when you’re laying it all on the line, but try not to be that person who makes others want to lie down and die from the embarrassment of a public grammar check. It’s important not to be that guy who feels the need to point this out to total strangers. The most important thing to remember about using lie versus lay correctly, is that not everybody does it. (And that’s not even accounting for the confusion created when “lie” is used for telling an untruth!) Never Time for a Grammar Check Most of the rest of America will never know. It’s tricky, but not impossible to remember which form of the verb is the right one to use, and if you mess it up - not to worry. I had lain under the beach umbrella until the sun went down.My poor dog had lain on that anthill for an hour.It’s a past tense word that refers back to the word lie. If you delivered that package yesterday, then you laid it on the stoop when it became too heavy.Īnd then there’s the word lain. So if you took your nap yesterday, then you took time to lay down yesterday to rest up after the ballgame. This makes life more difficult for those of us who value grammar over coolness. Sadly, somebody somewhere once decided that the past tense of the word lie is lay. Use another tense, and things get a little more murky. Seems simple enough in the present tense. I have to lay this heavy package down somewhere before I drop it.But if you’re feeling tired, and you’re ready for a nap, then you should go lie down. If something must be placed because it can’t place itself, then you must lay it down. An inanimate object, such as a wallet, phone or candy bar lays on the table. If you’re using the present tense, simply remember that a person or animal lies down on its own. I lay there myself just yesterday, and I’ll be lying there again tomorrow.It’s followed you all through life - the tendency to mix up the words “lie” and “lay.” But not to worry, according to Grammar Girl, there’s an easy way to remember which one is which: I laid it there myself just yesterday, and I’ll be laying it there again tomorrow.Įxample: She often lies there. She lays the book on the shelf.Įxample: She often lays it there. The child was lying on the bed (past-progressive tense using the present participle lying ). The child has lain on the bed (present-perfect tense using the past participlelain ). ![]() Yesterday, the child lay on the bed (past tense of lie ). When his wife called, he was laying the blanket on the child ( past-progressive tense using the present participlelaying ). He has laid the blanket on the child ( present-perfect tense using the past participlelaid ). Yesterday, he laid the blanket on the child (past tense of lay ). Huge problems arise when these two verbs are inflected: The parent lays the blanket on the child. ![]() ![]() (A transitive verb can take an object, that is, a noun can attach itself to the word lay.) The word lay, on the other hand, is a transitive verb showing the act of putting or placing something or someone in a particular position or location. (An intransitive verb cannot take an object, that is, a noun cannot directly attach itself to the word lie.) Quite simply, the word lie is an intransitive verb showing that someone or something is in a reclining position. The vast majority of people butcher these two words. ![]()
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