Lay or Lie? Never mix them up again.

Here’s a question.

What’s Jay doing here?

Is he lying on the couch or is he laying on the couch?

If you’re not sure, watch this video and find out.

A lot of you have told us you find these two verbs confusing.

We’re not surprised.

They’re so confusing that native speakers often mix them up.

So first we’re going to go step by step, explain the meaning and the grammar and show

you how they work in action.

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Can we start now?

Yes.

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If the bank manger calls, tell him I’m not here.

But you are here.

I know but tell him I’m not here.

But that would be lying.

OK, the first thing to note.

The verb 'lie' has two meanings.

One meaning is not tell the truth.

For example.

I’m very honest.

I never lie.

Um, so how old are you, Vicki?

I'm, umm… thirty two.

Really?

Thirty two, eh?.

You should never ask a lady how old she is.

She lied.

So in that meaning, 'lie' is a regular verb.

Lie, lied. lied.

It’s easy huh?

OK, let's forget that meaning and look at another one.

This is Ksenia, and she's lying down here.

She's in a horizontal or resting position.

This meaning of lie is similar to the verb 'lay', but when we lay something we put it

down.

Now here's Ksenia again and she’s is laying Carter's toys on the floor, placing them there.

So 'lie' means be horizontal and 'lay' means place something down.

And now it's time for some grammar.

‘Lie' is an intransitive verb which means it has no object.

We can lie on something.

We can lie in something.

We can lie under something, but we can't lie something.

'Lay' is a transitive verb so it has an object.

We always lay something.

We can lay roads - build them by laying down asphalt.

We can lay carpets - put them on the floor.

We can lay bricks to build walls.

Birds lay eggs and then they sit on them until they hatch.

There’s another place we say ‘lay’ in British English.

Oh yeah?

Yeah, we lay the table.

Oh you've laid the table!

Thank you.

In America we say set the table.

We can say ‘set’ in British English too, but we also say lay because you’re placing

things on the table.

Hey stop that man.

Put up your hands and lay down your weapon.

So remember, laying is like putting or placing.

And that brings us to a great tip.

If you're not sure which verb to use, there’s a question you can ask.

If you’re thinking is it 'lay' or is it 'lie', ask yourself this question.

If the answer is yes, then the verb you need is 'lay'.

So I’m laying my book on the couch here – I’m placing it there.

Lay down your weapon - place it on the ground.

So we'd say 'lay', nit 'lie' here because we're talking about placing something.

So could we use the verb place here?

No.

So Ksenia’s just lying on the floor.

But what about here?

Now she’s placing things on the floor.

So yes, we'd say she’s laying toys on the floor.

Great.

Now you know which verb to choose!

So now it’s time for some more grammar!

Both of these verbs are irregular.

The base forms are lie and lay.

But then it get’s harder.

What are the three parts of the verbs?

Lie goes lie… lay… lain.

And lay goes – lay… laid … laid.

There’s something really tricky here.

Look at the past form of 'lie'.

It's lay!

Weird, eh?

Sometimes English is so confusing.

Let’s see them all in action.

OK, so here are the three parts of the verbs.

Lie, lay, lain.

Lay, laid, laid.

The good news is we rarely say 'lain' these days, so let's forget about that.

Trust me.

You probably won't need it.

We’re going to look at examples of the other ones.

We’re just back from holiday where I got a wonderful sun tan.

Unfortunately Jay lay in the sun too long too long.

So what did Vicki say there?

The missing word is 'lay'.

Now is that the verb ‘lay’ or the past form of 'lie'?

It’s the past form of lie.

Remember 'lie' means be horizontal, be in a resting position and the past form is lay.

OK, let’s look at the verb 'lay' now.

Has the mail come?

Yes, I laid it on your desk.

Thank you.

Hey Vicki.

Have you seen the dry cleaning?

Yes, I've laid it on the bed.

Thank you.

So what were the missing words here?

They were both 'laid'.

We’re looking at the past and the present perfect forms here and we say ‘laid’ in

both tenses.

Now the most common mistake people make with these two verbs is they say ‘lay’ when

they mean 'lie'.

Yeah.

You have to remember, if something is just sitting somewhere at rest, use the verb 'lie'.

Let’s have a little quiz.

Are you ready?

First question.

After you have laid a book on the couch then is it lying there, or laying there?

It's lying there.

It’s not laying there.

Have you seen my book?

I think I saw it lying on the couch.

Oh, thank you.

Now how did it get there?

Here’s another question for you.

What am I doing here?

Am I lying on the sofa or laying on the sofa?

I’m lying.

I’m in a horizontal position.

So if you see something lying on the ground, it's just sitting or resting there, it's lying

there.

It's only laying there if it's doing something else, like it's a chicken that's laying eggs

or something.

That’s because lay is a transitive verb, right?

Exactly.

We always lay something.

If you want to know more about transitive and intransitive verbs, we’ve made some

other videos about them.

Yes, a good video to watch now would be our video on 'raise and rise'.

They can be confusing too.

We’ll put a link at the end.

So that's it everyone.

Until next time.

Bye-bye.

Bye.