I should begin with the disclaimer that this article hasn't anything to do with comestibles. It could be considered food for thought, however. Why do most Americans say "lay" when they really mean "lie?" Hearing this ubiquitous misusage occasionally brings out the curmudgeon in me.
Let's lay down the fact that both are verbs: lay is transitive; lie is intransitive. In other words, lay takes an object, lie does not. For example, when I "lay me down to sleep," I lay myself down to slumber or simply lie down. The converse is incorrect: I neither lie myself down nor lay down. (To "lay down," quite literally, is to engage in the placement of soft, fluffy feathers.) Also, Wall Street can lay, not lie, an egg. Consider, as a mnemonic, the verbs raise (transitive) and rise (intransitive): one can raise oneself or rise; the sun does not raise, it also rises.
Some of the confusion may lie in the fact that lay also happens to be the past tense of lie. In this context, "I lay down" refers to a past horizontal position of mine. Confused? Perhaps the following will help: I lie in bed right now; I lay in bed yesterday. Another factor that may lie in the way of correct usage is the homonym that refers to mendacity. In this sense, a person who lies in bed could be said to prevaricate in the sack.
Of course, neither the past tense of lie nor the aforementioned transitive verb has much to do with the homophonous lei, a floral wreath or necklace. (In Hawai'i, receiving a lei refers the acquisition of flowers, not the surrender thereof.) Furthermore, lie should not be confused with lye, an alkaline liquid used to make soap.
To complicate matters further, the past participles of lay and lie are laid and lain, respectively. Thus, a hen lays or is laying eggs, but she laid or has laid them previously. I lie or am lying at present, and I lay or have lain in the past.
The following table lays it all out.
| Present | Past | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tense | Participle | Tense | Participle |
| lay | laying | laid | laid |
| lie | lying | lay | lain |
Additional examples:
Incorrect: Let sleeping dogs lay.
Correct: Let sleeping dogs lie.
Incorrect: You should lay low for a while.
Correct: You should lie low for a while.
Incorrect: She laid on the hammock.
Correct: She lay on the hammock.
Correct: She has lain on the hammock.
Incorrect: There's a large object laying across our path.
Correct: There's a large object lying across our path.
Incorrect: Lay down!
Correct: Lie down!
Incorrect: He laid in waiting.
Correct: He lay in waiting.
Incorrect: As I lay here now, I think of when I laid here yesterday and all the times I've laid here before.
Correct: As I lie here now, I think of when I lay here yesterday and all the times I've lain here before.
If, without a lie, laying down the rules has laid to rest any confusion and allayed all concerns about laying and lying, an Olé! is in order.
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