Nick's Guide to Great Writing!

This material is on nuances, and shades of gray. While it is included in the writing section of my homepage, it is useful for speakers and general students of English, both native and non-native learners of English vocabulary.

This page ©2001 by nicholasemiller

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lie and lay
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Explanation, discussion and example(s):

Lay and lie are two little words that even cause problems for native speakers. The easy way to try to remember them is that lay is a transitive verb and lie is an intransitive verb (note the two is!)

What that means is that lay takes an object (lay something or someone down) while lie does not take an object. Please study the following for meanings and examples:

Lay (past tense: laid)

this one means to place something down

From a child's bedtime prayer;
"Now I lay me down to sleep..."

The hen laid an egg.

Laying his head on his mother's shoulder, the baby fell asleep.

His father was laid out at a funeral parlor just a few blocks from his house.

Lie (past tense: lay)

this one means to recline or be located in/at

I have a headache, so I think I will go lie down.

I had no sooner lain down, when the door bell rang and made me get up.

For me, heaven would be lying on a tropical beach on a warm, sunny day, drinking a nice cold Mai Tai and reading a good book.

Did you know that three golf balls lie on the moon?

Please note that lie can also mean to tell something that is not true, and also note that the past tense of THAT word is lied!

Example: Try as hard as I might, I could never lie as much as the Master Liar, Mr. Bill; he lied more in one year than I could even dream of in a lifetime.


Note(s):

Exercise(s):
Note: Due to a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you must click next question for the first question. This does not happen in Netscape. In any browser, click on the [a], [b] or [c] for the answer and the next question button to see the next question.

 
 
 


Tries:    Right Answers: out of 3 questions.