lay

lay, lie

These two words cause confusion even to native speakers of English because their meanings are related and their forms overlap. Lay is a transitive verb, i.e. it takes an object, and means ‘to place on a surface, to cause to rest on something’; its past form and past participle are both laid. (examples: Please lay it on the floor / The teacher laid the book on the desk / They had laid it on the floor / Babies should be laid down to sleep on their backs). Lie is intransitive, and means ‘to rest or be positioned on a surface’; its past form is lay (i.e. identical with the present form of the other verb), its present participle is lying, and its past participle is lain (examples: Go and lie on the bed / She went and lay on the bed / He is lying on the bed / The body had lain in the field for several days). The principal mistakes in the use of these verbs are using lay for lie, laid for lay (past of lie), and lain for laid: ☒ We are going to lay [read: lie]

• under the stars by the sea —Sun, 1990

• ☒ Standing in a semicircle, we had lain [read: laid] all our uniforms and possessions at our feet —C. Jennings, 1990

• ☒ It was very uncomfortable and painful especially when I laid [read: lay] down to sleep —Mirror, 2003.