Table of Contents
Lie down. Don’t lay an egg.
Lie in the present does not have an object.
This will sound strange, but strange is sometimes easier to remember: “l” and “i” are parallel in the word “lie,” meaning they both point in the same direction. To “lie down” is to become parallel to the ground. “Lie” does not take an object. It is the entire action.
But “lay” is the past tense of “lie.”
Another suggestion: We lie down to rest. “Rest” and “lie” both have an “e.”
Lay has an object, unless it is in the past.
A chicken will lay an egg. (“Lay” needs something to be put down.)
The problem here is in the various tenses.
Lie: present = “lie,” past = “lay,” past participle (with “have”) = “lain,” present participle (with “is”) = “lying” (Drop the “ie” and add “-ing.)
Lay: present = “lay,” past = “laid,” past participle (with “have”) = “laid,” present participle (with “is”) = “laying”
So the present of the second (“lay”) is the past of the first (“lie”). Is that confusing enough?
Add a completely different meaning to “lie” as in “tell an untruth,” but that’s not usually a spelling problem.
Examples:
- Nancy is so tired she will lie down without changing into her pajamas.
- (“lie” = put oneself horizontal)
- She didn’t even say her prayers, “Now I lay me down to sleep.”
- (“lay” = present tense, has the object “me”)
- Yesterday she lay on the couch with the TV on. Today she will lie on the floor.
- (“lay” = past tense of “lie” = put oneself horizontal)
- Last week they laid 300 bricks for the museum. Today they will lay more.
- (“laid” = past tense of “lay,” direct object = “bricks”)
Credit: Photo by Tadeusz Lakota on Unsplash, dreamstime.com
