lay OR lie?

The verbs lay and lie confuse people because:

their meanings can be similar
one of the verbs (lie) has two completely different meanings
they vary between regular and irregular according to sense
they vary between transitive and intransitive according to sense
the present tense of lay is the past tense of the irregular lie

The following table summarizes these similarities and differences:

	lay	lie	lie
basic meaning	to put something down in a horizontal position	to recline; to be in or to take a horizontal/resting position	to say something untrue
regular?	irregular lay, laid, laid	irregular lie, lay, lain	regular lie, lied, lied
transitive? direct object?	transitive (must have direct object)	intransitive (no direct object)	intransitive (no direct object)
3rd person s	lays	lies	lies
present participle	laying	lying	lying
past tense	laid	lay	lied
past participle	laid	lain	lied

lay

lay, laid, laid, laying

The main meaning of the verb lay is "to put (something) down in a horizontal position".

The important thing to remember with lay is that it is transitive, so it MUST have a direct object. You cannot just lay. You have to lay something. Look at these examples. You see they all have direct objects.

subject	verb	direct object
Something	lays	something	(somewhere).
Chickens	lay	eggs.
Our chickens	lay	their eggs	on the ground.
The nurses	laid	the wounded man	on the bed.

Here is a table of conjugation:

	present	past	present perfect
I	lay	laid	have laid
you	lay	laid	have laid
he, she, it	lays	laid	has laid
we	lay	laid	have laid
you	lay	laid	have laid
they	lay	laid	have laid

Here are some example sentences:

The policeman told him to lay his gun on the ground.
The police usually lay a sheet over dead bodies.
This chicken lays three eggs every day.
He opened the books and laid them on the desk.
I have laid the carpet. You can walk on it now.
The phone rang just as she was laying the new clothes on the bed.

lie (irregular, intransitive)

lie, lay, lain, lying

The irregular, intransitive lie means "to be in, or to take, a horizontal/resting position". This is what we do on a bed, for example. We lie on our bed when we sleep.

The important thing to remember with lie is that it is intransitive, so there is no direct object. Look at this examples. You see there is no direct object.

subject	verb
Something	lies	(somewhere).
My dog	lies	on this mat.
Mary	is lying	on the sofa.

You also need to remember that the past tense of this lie is "lay", which is the same as the present tense of to lay. Look at this table of conjugation:

	present	past	present perfect
I	lie	lay	have lain
you	lie	lay	have lain
he, she, it	lies	lay	has lain
we	lie	lay	have lain
you	lie	lay	have lain
they	lie	lay	have lain

Look at these example sentences:

I feel sick. I want to lie on the bed.
Usually I lie on the sofa and watch TV.
My dog always lies on this mat.
He loves this mat. Yesterday, he lay here all day.
She has lain in bed since she got ill.
After the aircrash, wreckage was lying all over the place.

Typical mistake

I always ~~lay~~ on a bench to do this exercise. (should be lie)

Lie is something that we do to ourselves. Lay is something that we do to other people or things.

I lie on the sofa when I'm tired.
Mary lays the baby in its crib when it cries.

lie (regular, intransitive)

lie, lied, lied, lying

The first one above is easy. In the sense "to tell a lie, say something that is not true", lie is a regular verb and has no direct object. The past tense is always -ed. Look at these examples:

Some people lie about their age.
John lies about everything.
"I'm forty-nine," he lied.
We have all lied a few times in our lives.
That's not true! You're lying!

	present	past	present perfect
I	lie	lied	have lied
you	lie	lied	have lied
he, she, it	lies	lied	has lied
we	lie	lied	have lied
you	lie	lied	have lied
they	lie	lied	have lied

The verbs lie and lay can have other meanings too. Only the most common are shown here. There are also several phrasal verbs made with lie and lay. They follow the same basic rules as shown on this page.