Unfortunately, and to the dismay of English speakers and toddler parents everywhere, things aren’t always so simple. For example, walk becomes walk ed, call becomes call ed, work becomes work ed, and so forth. One of those rules is the “-ed” rule: When we want to make a verb past tense, we add the ending “-ed” to it. You see, in English, most verbs are regular, meaning they follow the same rules. We’re going to get to that here in a minute, but first some explanation and context. If you’re astute, you noticed the use of “lay” in the heading above. No, it doesn’t mean they need more fiber - it means that they don’t act like most other verbs. We have to understand that much of our confusion comes from the fact that these verbs are irregular. Irregular Verbs - Or, That Time I Lay in Bed Thinking about Lying
Thanks, English.Ĭonfusing enough? Hold on. Yes - something lies where it has been laid. Now think about this: You lay down that book, and after you’ve laid it down, what does it do? It lies there. And when we’re done reading, we can lay the book on the coffee table. Thus, we can lie on the couch with a book. Like a brick, for example - bricklayers lay bricks. To lay, on the other hand, is something we do to something or someone - grammar nerds like me say that lay “takes a direct object.” All this means is that you can’t simply lay, you have to have something to lay. We lie in bed and our cat lies in the sunshine. Let’s get something out of the way: You might be using lay incorrectly.ĭespite the frequency of phrases like, “I’m going to lay in bed,” or, “my cat lays in the sunshine,” such usage of lay is technically incorrect. I’m about to lay down some grammar realness. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute! What about the other sense of lie, meaning “to recline”? And isn’t that the same thing as lay? If we can say “I laid it down,” can’t we say “ I laid down?” Great! Now we know the difference between lied and laid. I took my phone out of my pocket, turned off the ringer, and laid it down on the desk. Laid is the past tense of “to lay” which means to set or to place, as in the examples below:īefore plating the vegetables, the chef laid a bed of rice on the plate. (Sometimes lies are ok - if there’s going to be cake.) Time to Lay Down the Law To keep the birthday party a surprise, my friend Avery lied to me. Though I haven’t seen much confusion about this, let’s look at an example just for fun:
When we’re talking about something someone knew to be false but said anyway, we want to use lies. Using Lied and Laid Correctly - with Examples I Cannot Tell a Lie
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