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“To Lie” vs. “To Lay”

What to tell your pet.

Ellen Jovin

The verbs to lie” and to lay” cause a whole lot of confusion. (This discussion focuses on “to lie” in the sense of “to lie down,” not in the sense of deceiving others.) Although to lie” and to lay” have related meanings, they are in fact two different verbs with different forms.

“To lie” is an intransitive verb. That means it cannot take a direct object.is transitive and thus requires a direct object. Take a look at this table, where to lay” is followed by book” and to lie” has no object.

As you can see in the table above, the past tense of to lie” looks annoyingly like the present tense of to lay.” That similarity is the source of many of the “lie”/“lay” mix-ups. It would be incorrect to say “I laid down on my bed,” because the verb you want is to lie,” and the past tense of to lie” is lay.”

Also, don’t tell your dog, “Lay down,” or you risk teaching your pet bad grammar! The correct command is “Lie down.”