Beyond the present tense the pair can become more confusing because lay is the past tense of lie and laid is the.
Lying or laying on the floor.
Although he is in the desert and the weather is dry he has the impression of lying in water.
But you lie down on a bed or other flat surface.
Varner is lying on a bed under multiple layers of sheets.
The present participle of lie is not lieing.
Grammar and spelling tips don t mix up lie and lay you lay something as in.
You ve been lying down all day.
Lay is a transitive verb meaning it needs to transport something i e.
When you lay the blanket down blanket is the direct object.
If there is then use a form of lay.
Sentences such as the following ones are wrong.
A crunch begins with lying face up on the floor with knees bent.
They are going to lay the carpet.
The i becomes a y.
He phones hannah s father and apologizes for lying.
Lying and laying.
If you tell an untruth it is a lie not a lay.
I was laying the blanket on the floor.
The more you can connect to the actual definitions of lying and laying the easier it becomes to use each word correctly for the specific acts.
A classroom trick is to say the word out loud.
Another soldier was lying in a ditch with a rifle.
Your best bet when deciding between the variations of lay and lie is to determine whether there is a direct object you re referring to.
Lay means to place something down flat while lie means to be in a flat position on a surface the key difference is that lay is transitive and requires an object to act upon and lie is intransitive describing something moving on its own or already in position.
And if you are in the process of telling an untruth you are lying and not laying.