Lay vs Lie | Ask Linda! | English Grammar
Channel: ITTT International TEFL & TESOL Training
Date: 2017-01-03

“Lay” and “lie” are often confused for each other. “Lay” is a transitive verb that needs to be followed by one or more objects for example “I lay the book on the table”. “Lie” on the other hand is an intransitive verb meaning it takes no object for example “I lie down”. Confusion arises because the past tense of “lie” is “lay” while the past tense of “lay” is “laid”.

This is such a common mistake that I simply have to cover it.

Let’s take a closer look:

Lay is what we call a transitive verb. That means, it requires one or multiple objects, for example:

I lay the book on the table. 

‘Book’ is an object followed by ‘on the table’ as the second object.

Lie, on the other hand is considered an intransitive verb. That means it does not need a object, such as in this example sentence:

I need to lie down.

It is also worth noting that common mistakes occur when using the past tense forms of the two words.

The past tense of ‘lay’ is ‘laid’, while the past tense form of ‘lie’ is ‘lay’. See the confusion?

So always make sure if you use a direct object or not.

That’s it for today. See you next time!
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