Lay and lie are two of the most confusing verbs in the language. Hopefully, after reading this blog post, you will finally be confident of the difference.
Let’s start here:
I read the books.
I play Monopoly.
He buys a shirt.
Look at the bolded words in the above sentences. They all receive the action of the verb. What do I read? Books. What do I play? Monopoly. What does he buy? A shirt. These words are all nouns (things) and are called direct objects.
Now look at these sentences:
I read all the time.
I play in the park.
He buys with a credit card.
What do I read? What do I play? What does he buy? These sentences don’t give the answer. They may answer the question where? (in the park), when? (all the time), or how? (with a credit card), but there is no noun (or pronoun) that answers what ? (or whom). In other words, those sentences, although they use the exact same verbs, have no direct objects.
Verbs that have direct objects are called transitive verbs. Verbs that have no direct object are called intransitive verbs. Obviously, from the examples, the same verbs can be either, depending upon how they are used in the sentence. Some verbs, however, are usually transitive, and others are usually intransitive.
What on earth does this have to do with lay and lie?
Here we go: Lay is a transitive verb. Lie is an intransitive verb. Simply put, you must lay something.
Here are some examples of lay used correctly:
- I lay my blanket on the sand. (lay a blanket)
- Please lay your books on the table. (lay books)
- I am laying my pen here, so I don’t forget it. (laying my pen)
Here are some examples of lie used correctly:
- I lie on the sand to get a tan.
- The books are lying on the table.
- My pen is lying on the desk.
*Notice that lay and lie have nothing to do with whether you are talking about people or objects. Objects can lie as well as people!
But wait! We have talked about only the present tense. The past tense is where things get complicated.
First, let’s talk about the verb lay, which is pretty simple.
- Today, I am laying my blanket on the sand. (Present tense – lay or laying).
- Yesterday, I laid my blanket on the sand. (Past tense – laid or was laying)
- Every day this week, I have laid my blanket on the sand. (Past participle form, used with have or had – have laid or have been laying)
Now, let’s talk about lie which is a little weirder:
- Today, I am lying on the sand. (NOT laying – present tense – lie or lying)
- Yesterday, I lay on the sand. (Yup! The past tense of lie is lay. They did it to confuse us! Lay or was lying)
- Every day this week, I have lain on the sand. (Past participle form, used with have or had. Yes, lain is a word! Have lain or have been lying)
Here is the verb LAY, completed conjugated, all six tenses:
- Present: lay or laying
- Past: laid or was laying
- Future: will lay or will be laying
- Present Perfect: have laid or have been laying
- Past Perfect: had laid or had been laying
- Future Perfect: will have laid or will have been laying
And here is the verb LIE, completely conjugated, all six tenses:
- Present: lie or lying
- Past: lay or was lying
- Future: will lie or will be lying
- Present Perfect: have lain or have been lying
- Past Perfect: had lain or had been lying
- Future Perfect: will have lain or will have been lying
There! I hope this post has cleared up some of your confusion about lie and lay. As always, I welcome any questions or comments. Now, I think I need another cup of coffee! Happy weekend!
Today, I am lying on the sand.
aka i’m telling my boss i’m hard at work 🙂
ps this is standard stuff in dutch where the exception rules
http://www.dutchgrammar.com/nl/?n=Verbs.Re12
http://onzetaal.nl/taaladvies/advies/t-kofschip
tables and ezelsbrug (donky bridges =mnemonic) are the norm (ezelsbrug =mnemonic)
My Dutch needs a little work!
I am an English/ESL teacher and I still have trouble with these two verbs. But the bit about transitive and intransitive helps a lot. In order to remember which is which, I will still need a mnemonic, so I will remember that l*a*y is tr*a*nsitive, and that l*i*e is *i*ntransitive! Thanks, Arlene.
Also, for a quick way to remember: If there is Action involved it is lAy. If there is not movement involved it is lie.
The company was losing business so the foreman had to lay off some help?????
Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct. Lay off is a verb unto itself. But it is like lay since it requires an object. You have to lay something and you alsop have to lay off something (actually, someone!)
My dad always corrected us with “chickens lay, people lie” – that generally works
but I see it is more complicated. Thanks for your blog Arlene – I really enjoy it.
Elisa
Yes, I guess everything is more complicated than it seems! Or than it has to be! Glad you are enjoying the posts!
Thanks for clearing that up! One of my students asked me this in class a few weeks ago and although I knew the answer, I found it extremely difficult to answer them. Poor kids all looked totally confused! I’ll revisit the subject and take a few examples from you! Great stuff, thanks.
Glad to be of help! Where do you teach??
Well said, Arlene! I like the way you made it clear and easy to understand the difference between vt and vi. Perhaps, I will use some of that wording with our students.
–JDay
Thanks, Jon!!!! And thank you for your continued support — really appreciated!
Oh this is going to be fun! I’ve just joined the Grammar Diva’s blog and am looking forward to learning all sorts of good things. Thanks so much.
Welcome! I will try to keep it as informative and fun as I can!!!
This has been a lifelong challenge for me and I won’t even take any chances on using the word here for fun!
My people stretch out…if you know what I mean.
Loved this article!
Thanks, Linda! Most writers need to use lie more than lay, I would suspect!!
I will lie down and lay my blanket on me. Right?
Perfect! But then, you are a teacher, and we are smarties!!
So this ancient ditty is correct — Now I lay me down to sleep….
Thanks for the clarification, Arlene!
Now I think I’ll just lay [oops…lie] around the house and be lazy all weekend. LindaJay
Ha! Thanks for the comment, Linda! Don’t do too much laying around!
Well now, that was informative and entertaining! I think I’ve stumbled on those words a few times.
So what happens if you only lie when you’re lying down – and you’re an attorney?
Are you a laying, lying lawyer?
😉
~Doug
You are a lying, lying lawyer!