Lay – transitive verb meaning “to place; to put”
Present: Today I lay the book on the table.
Past: Yesterday I laid the book on the table.
Present Perfect: I have laid the book on the
table.
Present Continuous: I am laying the book on the
table.
Lie – intransitive verb meaning “to recline; to
rest horizontally”
Present: Today I lie on the bed.
Past: Yesterday I lay on the bed.
Present Perfect: I have lain on the bed all day.
Present Continuous: I am lying on the bed.
The point where I (and pretty much everyone else) get confused is when I’m trying to use either word in the past tense because the past tense of lie is lay. The only way I’ve been able to keep the two straight is to use a dictionary. I’ve asked professors in the past and they haven’t had any other suggestions. They haven’t been able to use the words correctly every time, either.
The editing mistake I found this week was on the bulletin board for the English department in Elizabeth Hall. The cents after the given dollar amount should be eliminated since it is a whole dollar number. Adding the cents is just redundant. There is also a space missing between the ampersand and the word "free."
I always hated it when math books did that! Placing the .00 after the whole amount is not only unnecessary and redundant but wastes ink and paper. If it has a decimal, then put it, but if it doesn't and a whole number is written isn't it assumed to be a whole number? It drives me crazy that calculators do that as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for clarifying lay vs. lie! These are two words that I don't think I have EVER used correctly! Thanks for making it a bit easier for me! Great post!
ReplyDeleteLay vs. lie is a pain for pretty much everybody. It's just one of those rules you have to memorize, or at least remember to double-check when editing. The unnecessary .00 is almost as bad as when people use both a dollar sign and the word "dollars."
ReplyDelete