Grammar Mishaps: Lie vs. Lay
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When do you use "lie" and when do you use "lay"?
Lie and lay are commonly misused. My father-in-law, a high school English teacher, finally taught me the correct usage, and I think I have finally got it.
Lie is to recline. Lay is to put or place, and the verb is always followed by an object. One easy way to remember is, you lie in the sun and a chicken lays an egg. Where it gets tricky is in the past and past participle (the form of have) tenses.
Lay-to put or place
- The present tense of lay (to put or place) is lay or laying. I am laying the book on the table. I lay the book on the table.
- The past tense of lay (to put or place) is laid. Yesterday, I laid the book on the table.
- The past participle tense (have, has, had) of lay (to put or place) is also laid. I have laid the book on the table. She has laid the book on the table. She had laid the book on the table.
lay, laid, laid
Lie-to recline
- The present tense of lie (to recline) is lie or lying. I am lying on the bed. I lie on the bed.
- The past tense of lie (to recline) is lay. Yesterday, I lay on the bed.
- The past participle tense (have, has, had) of lie (to recline) is lain. I have lain on the bed for many hours. She has lain on the bed for many hours. She had lain on the bed for many hours.
lie, lay, lain
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Perhaps, lain is an odd word as well. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! Thanks for the comment!
I hear a lot of people using lay when they should be using lie.
How about the distinction betwee healthy and healthfu. As in healthful foods and vegetables. I was taught people are healthy and exercise or food is healthful.
Another one that bugs me is the usage of comprise interchangeably with compose. Or using comprise when compose is correcter :-). As in the collection was comprised of old coins from around the world when composed should have been used according to my high school English teacher.
Corredt usage: Coins from all over the world comprise the collection.
Correct usage: The collection is composed of coins from all over the world.
Incorrect usage: The collection is comprised of coins from all over the world.
Many people are having similar confusion over imply and infer, as in "He inferred that he was leaving soon but didn't say so specifically."
Hi Ralph! Another grammar "stickler" as Lynne Truss calls those who are aware of the grammatical mistakes around them. You should write a few grammar hubs too. Great additions to this hub, thanks! Robin
I've been participating in another forum for nearly 10 years and have met three participants in person. Beyond that a rather close community has developed which gives many of us the feeling that the other participants are our friends (and some friendly enemies). It would be good if this deveolped among "Hubbies." When you spend some time to put a hub together with what appears to you to have some interesting or useful content, your effort is validated if you get a response or two from someone else. Page views without comments aren't very meaningful, in my opinion.
I agree. I love hearing responses. I need to make a point of leaving more responses for other hubs that have an impact. I am impressed with your photograph hubs. You have a lot of talent and patience to capture the right shot. I hope that hubpages becomes a place where meaningful hubs and responses flourish.
In a command:
"Lie down" or "lay down" which is correct?
Great question, Jack. Lie and lay can both be used with commands. Lay down would be used if you were commanding someone to lay (put or place) an object down. For example: Lay down your gun; or lay the baby down in its crib. If you are talking to your dog, you would say, "Lie down." Your dog is lying down on his own; you are not physically doing the action of laying him down. I hope this helps; if not, let me know and I'll try again. ;)
Great hub, Robin! To lie is something you do to yourself! To lay is something you do to something else (an object)! Thanks, Robin.
Great way of saying it. Thanks! Robin
As I head toward my bedroom do I say to my wife "I am going to lay down" or " I am going to lie down."
Much argument in my writing class.
Many Thanks in advance
Hi Bill, Thanks for the question. You would say to your wife, "I am going to lie down." You are doing the action to yourself. However, let's say you were carrying your wife to bed. You would say, "I will lay my wife on the bed." You are placing her on the bed; she is not doing the action herself.
The confusing part is in the past tense. The past tense of "lie" is "lay". So you would say, "Today, I will lie on the bed; Yesterday, I lay on the bed." This is a tricky one, but worth getting right. It gets really fun with the past participle: the form of have. "I have lain on the bed for three hours." Hope this helps and doesn't cause more confusion. ;)
Thanks Robin for your reply, It is hard for me to get away from the fact, lay is a transitive verb, and even though you are doing it to yourself, ie., I lay myself down it is an action. But I stand corrected, and it is just another step in my learning curve. I think I had better lie down now.
Again, Thanks, Bill
Yes, it's confusing. Another way to think of it: transitive verbs need an object and intransitive verbs do not. When we say, "Now I lay me down to sleep," the object is "me". When you say, "I am going to lie down," there is no object. It is the same with raise and rise. I wrote a hub on this commonly confused pair, too.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Grammar_Mishaps__Raise_vs_
Thanks! Hope you had a good rest. ;)
Then what about the children's prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep
Hi Jenn ma, the children's prayer is correct because there is an object, "me", in the sentence. The sentence could be reworded, Now I lay Jimmy down to sleep" and it would be correct, or "Now I lie down to sleep." The second sentence has no object, so we use the word "lie". Hope that helps. See comment number 14 for a bit more clarification. Cheers and Happy New Year! Robin
What about the problem lies in the manner in which their plan was created?
Hi Robin, can you help with the correct use of in-person vs. in person? I did a search on google and this hub came up...so, I thought I'd ask a professional in the area of the English language. Thank you, :)
So is it all Bob Dylan's fault that people confuse lay & lie? "Lay, Lady, lay; lay across my big brass bed." Should he have said "Lay yourself acorss my big brass bed" to maintain the transitive place function of lay? He's certainly not using it in the past tense and though it sounds like a command of sorts, he's not saying 'lie', either. Clearly 'lay' worked better for rhyming purposes and thus has poetic license, but I wonder how much of the confusion is the fault of the song?
Hi Robin - Regarding lay v. lie, is this correct?
...its beautiful red orb was just beginning to touch the horizon. I lie on my back and let the waves carry me for awhile,,,
AJ,
Yes, you are correct. "I lie on my back and let the waves carry me for awhile...." Thanks for the comment!
Hi Robin, thanks for you posting! I'm not native English speaker, and your post about grammer really help a lot. I am all dumb when writing my blog in English, do you have any suggestion website that I can imporve my English writing (and speaking)? Thank you!
actually this is very easy to remember if you keep in mind what Robin says---chicken lay eggs and people lie down. People don't "lay" down because if so, where's the egg??
It is very simple. I have heard this error so frequestly that I have been wondering if the incorrect use of these words has now become acceptable and standard?
So, to paraphrase one of the other posts, does the fault LIE with Bob Dylan, or does the fault LAY with Bob Dylan? I am thinking that it is correct to say that the fault LIES with someone because it seems that the intransitive verb is correct -- the fault is just there with the person. However, I believe that I often see the improper usage -- the faults lays with someone. Now, one could LAY the BLAME with Bob Dylan. :-)
Can someone answer a question for me? Are the following sentences correct with regards to use of the words who/whoever vs whom/whomever. If so, why and if not why.
1. The general regarded whomever the colonel honored with distain.
2. When the supervisor entered the room, he noticed that the book way laying on the table.
Michael Hancher
hanchermichael@yahoo.com
Michael,
1. Your first sentence is correct except the correct word is "disdain" not "distain."
2. Your second sentence is incorrect. The correct sentence would be, "When the supervisor entered the room, he noticed that the book way lying on the table." To lay something would be to put or place it, but if it is already on the table than lie is the correct verb.
Hope that helps!
Wow, you guys. I'm feeling so much better about being a grammar nerd now that I've read your comments. I'm new to Hubpages.com, but I can tell already that I'm going to love it here.
On the "lie" vs. "lay" issue, it's funny around our house when someone says, "I'm going to go lay down," because the other will say, "Well then you'd better clean it all up when you're finished!"
These all helps me, but what if I'm going to tell a patient I'm going to lie you down, as in put the head of a stretcher down. Lay or Lie?
In France we have a different system for lay versus lie. Technically, yours is incorrect. A for effort................................................................................NAH JK JK
I am a retired teacher who is now substitute teaching in the elementary. When I sub for Kindergarten, the students lie down to take a nap. They try to correct me when I instruct them to "lie down on your mats". I think they are probably used to hearing "lay down". I began to wonder if I was incorrect myself. That is why I logged on to this site. Thanks!
Thanks for the tips on lie and lay. I'm a grammar freak and always correcting family and friends. My husband is most conscious when he's speaking around me. The bad part is when I'm at church and hear the preacher misuse words or incorrectly use words. It's like all my attenneas go up. Worse of all, I sometimes laugh before I correct them. Only friends and family, of course. on last thing, I often hear people misuse "at".
I just ran accross the following sentence in an article.
"Herein lays the problem."
My Microsoft Grammar Checker accepted this as correct, and rejected the sentence when I substituted "lies".
I would have used "lies" in the sentence in the sense that here is where the problem rests. Am I correct or is the Microsoft Grammar Checker correct?
Another usage that I always question is this one.
Is it the "lie of the land" or is it the "lay of the land"? I would write the "lie of the land".
The following usage is an ingrained speaking and writing habit that probably will never be changed, but I will object to it anyway. I recall finding the Book of Mormon (written in early 19th century) in my dentist's office, and I happened to discover the phrase "have got" on the page I turned to. I just did a search on-line and found many "have gots" in the text, e.g., "We have got a Bible..."
My point is that this phrase has been used a suprisingly long time.
Is: I think I have finally got it.
Should be: I think I finally have it.
Is: Have you got
Should be: Do you have
Is: I've got
Should be: I have
I got it yesterday.
I have it today.
Regarding "Herein lays the problem."
I changed the order of the words to "The problem lays herein." The Microsoft Grammar Checker flagged this as incorrect and said the word should be "lies".
Personally, I use lay and lie as Robin describes them; but I hear and see "lay" used so often these days where "lie" would once have been mandatory that I wonder if the battle to maintain this distinction may not already be lost. (I realise that my semi-colon in that sentence may be questionable too.)
A lot of the latest dictionaries are now giving infer and imply as synonyms and so the battle to maintain that distinction may be over too.
Ralph, I have heard of this distinction you mention between "healthful" and "healthy", but I really think that one is a tad pedantic. The proportion of the population that has even heard of that one, let alone adheres to it, must be very very small indeed. Of course, some will say that "correctness" is not determined by usage, but I disagree. If language didn't change we'd all be talking and writing the same way as Chaucer did. The issue is how to maintain a healthy balance between extreme prescriptivision, which ignores the relevance of usage altogether; and extreme descriptivism, which can lead to an "anything goes" attitude. There has got to be (or should I leave the "got" out or write "there must be") a happy medium.
I think I want to let go of the"lay lie lied laid lain" thing. "I layed in bed" sounds nicer. I like it when Tao Lin writes that, and Ellen Kennedy, in their books. I plan to do that. I like "layed."
Also, Ms sounds nicer than Mrs and Miss. I think language reflects us...
livelonger says:
3 years ago
100% correct, but "lay" as the past tense of lie *still* sounds strange to me, even though I know it's correct. My guess is that within another generation, it'll "officially" change to laid.