Lie and Lay are frequently misused. Do I lay down before I sleep, or lie down?
The answer is really, really easy, but with a couple of hard bits which can confuse the life out of someone.
People LIE down. If you put a book on a table you LAY it down. So far so good. Whenever placing an inanimate object you lay it down. To take the book analogy further we must be clear on the right word to use according to WHEN the action takes place:
- Today I lay the book on the table.
- Tomorrow I will lay the book on the table.
- Yesterday I laid the book on the table
All of this seems fine, but the person who lies down introduces a small issue that makes the English language the fun-filled living nightmare it is:
- Today she lies down next to me.
- Tomorrow she will lie down next to me.
- Yesterday she lay down next to me.
- Yesterday she was lain next to me.
"Lay"? Aaarrrggghhhhhhh! The curse of the wayward past tense. "Lain"? The past participle of lie, and the correct way of saying "she was laying next to me", which is completely wrong.
If she was laying next to you then the "she" you're referring to is a chicken. Expect eggs.
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Not that mine is perfect, but I must have had VERY GOOD TEACHERS as I was painfully and deliberately acquiring English as my second language...I would never have had the guts to put anything up as training but I find it hilarious and can only commend you, Paul.I feel like I have found a soul mate griping about the same thing. I hope you have given a tutorial on my pet hate: the misuse of the words to lay and to lie. My patients always tell me they were laying down...their life, perhaps? And working in Ashton-under - Lyne near Manchester one of my patients proceeded to tell me: "I were just eating me tea, when..."
Coming from South Africa I never thought that i would need an interpreter for English, but there I did!
ReplyWhen ever I hear the word "sat" on telly I shout the word "sitting!" My wife just sighs.
I'll try to do "me" and "I" tomorrow, along with the correction to "me and him went out".
1) It's not 'Lay Lady Lay', it's 'Lie Lady Lie';
2) It's not 'Lay Down, Sally', it's 'Lie Down, Sally'; and
3) It's not 'I Feel Good!', but 'I Feel Well'.
I may not have used the proper punctuation above, but this discussion is about grammar, right? :-)
