The Hen Lies Down to Lay an Egg (lie and lay)

The verbs "lie" and "lay" are frequently misused and widely misunderstood. Perhaps today we can remove some of the fog surrounding them.

I'll start with "lay" because its forms more closely resemble those of a regular verb: LAY in the present, LAID in the past, LAID as the past participle, and LAYING as the present participle, like PAY, PAID, PAID, and PAYING. The verb "to lay" means "to put" or "to place." It might help you to remember that both "place" and "lay" have the long sound of "a." When you use a form of "lay" in a sentence, you should be able to substitute a form of "place."

The word "lay" is a transitive verb, and as such it expresses an action that goes from a doer to a receiver. The receiver answers the question "what?" after the verb, and the sentence doesn't make sense without the answer. Here are some examples of sentences in which forms of "lay" are used correctly:
          I don't know where I LAID my KEYS. (placed my keys)
         The workers have already LAID the TILES in the kitchen. (placed the tiles) 
          She's carefully LAYING the DRESS in the box. (placing the dress)
          He always LAYS the BLAME on others. (places the blame)
Notice that each of the above sentences has a receiver of the action, and that the receiver answers the question "what?" after the verb. IT IS NEVER CORRECT TO USE ANY OF THE ABOVE FORMS UNLESS THERE IS A RECEIVER OF THE ACTION!

 Did you notice that I left out one form of the verb "lay" in the above sentences? I left out "lay" itself, because this one form is the source of most of the confusion about the verbs "lie" and "lay"! You know that "lay" is a transitive verb that means "place," as in "lay an egg"; however, "lay" is also the PAST form of the verb "lie," which means "recline" or "be situated." The verbs "lie" and "lay" are frequently confused because the past form of one is the same as the present form of the other!

There are two more reasons for the confusion between "lie" and "lay":
           1.Many people aren't aware of the existence of the word "lain," and they use "laid" instead.
           2. Many people have misheard a statement like "Last night I lay down" as "Last night I laid down," mistakenly transferring the "d" sound at the beginning of "down" to the end of "lay."


The long sound of "i" in "lie" and "recline" may help you remember that these two verbs are synonyms. The verb "lie" is NOT transitive and has NO RECEIVER! Its forms are irregular: LIE in the present, LAY in the past, LAIN as the past participle, and LYING as the present participle. Here are some sentences in which the verb "lie" means "recline":
              The letter is LYING unanswered on my desk. (present)
               It has LAIN there for three days. (past participle)
               My ancestors LIE in this cemetery. (present)
               Yesterday the dog LAY under the tree. (past)
               Let sleeping dogs LIE. (present)
              The lake LIES beyond the mountain. (present)
Notice that the words "laid," "lays," and "laying" are not used in the above sentences because they are forms of the verb "lay," meaning "place" or "put," and can never mean "recline" or "be situated." Also notice that the above sentences have NO RECEIVER!



This sentence will help you remember the present forms of both verbs:

At the beach I like to LAY my towel down on the sand and LIE on it.




The following sentences summarize the verbs "lie" and "lay":
                                        
Present -                   People LIE down and hens LAY eggs.
Past-                         People LAY down and hens LAID eggs.
Past Participle-         People have LAIN down and hens have LAID eggs,
Present Participle-    People are LYING down and hens are LAYING eggs.




For more reinforcement:
                                                     LAY
           The table was LAID for four.
           I LAID down the book I was reading and answered the phone.
           The teacher will LAY down the law to her students.
           She LAID the baby in the crib.
           Before the earthquake the hens stopped LAYING.
           The teacher LAYS great importance on correct grammar.
           The lawyer LAID the case before the court.
                                               
                                                        LIE
            She LIES down when she has a headache.
            After dinner I LAY in the hammock .
            Use a sunscreen if you plan to LIE in the sun.
            The dust in the attic has LAIN there undisturbed for years.
            He's LYING down for a nap.
            Debris was LYING in the streets after the storm.
            The campground LIES along the banks of the river.


This paragraph has all the forms of both verbs:

I laid the package on the hall table before breakfast, and it lay there all morning. It is still lying there. Maybe I should not have laid it on that table, but I have been laying packages there all week with no problem. Should I pick it up and lay it on the desk in the office? I don't want it to lie in the hall all day. I'll be upset if I wake up tomorrow morning and find that it has lain there all night.




P.S. When the verb "lie" means to tell an untruth, it's a regular verb (ending in "ed") and presents no problems.

P.P.S. In a previous post, "Me, Myself, and I," I should have included this correction of a favorite childhood prayer: "Now I lay MYSELF (not "me") down to sleep..." This prayer uses "lay" correctly to mean "place myself down."