Lay, Lie, Laid, Lied, Lain

Are you wondering when to use lie versus lay? Should we say someone is laying down or lying down? And what about lied, laid, and lain? It can be so confusing, especially for students learning English. Today we'll learn the difference between lay and lie as well as all of their forms with plenty of examples. My goal is to make it clear for you. And that's also why I wrote an e-book called 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained. It's full of clear explanations and examples, helping you understand the difference between words that lots of English learners mixed up, like specially and especially, advice and advise, and many, many more. Click on the link under this video to learn more and to download that e-book. Lay and lie both refer to the action of putting something down on a surface or an animal, object, or person resting on a surface. But the main difference between lay and lie is that lay always has a direct object and lie does not. Remember, a direct object is the thing that receives the action of the verb. So when you put a book on the table, you lay the book down. Book is the direct object, you are doing something to the book, you are laying it down. But when you put your body, your own body, horizontally on the bed or sofa, you lie down. Nobody is doing it to you, you're doing it to yourself. If you are putting various photos onto a desk, you are laying the photos on the desk. Photos is the direct object, we are laying the photos on the desk. But in this picture, you can say this cat is lying on the piano. There's no direct object here, the cat is lying by itself. Now, one reason for the confusion is that many native English speakers do say things like, I'm not feeling well, I need to lay down. When I need to lie down would be more correct. Because the action is something I'm doing myself, nobody is doing it to me. Or if they notice someone looks sick, they might ask the person, do you want to lay down? When again, it should be, do you want to lie down? But in the present tense, it should always be, lay something down. As in our example, when I lay the book down on the table. But informal, everyday English sometimes doesn't follow grammar rules perfectly. So that's why you'll hear people say, I need to lay down, instead of I need to lie down. Now that you know the basic difference between lay and lie, let's look at their forms in different verb tenses. We have lay in the present, laying in the present participle, laid in the simple past, and laid in the past participle. We have lie in the present, lying in the present participle. Note that we spell it L-Y-I-N-G, not L-I-E-I-N-G. Lay in the simple past, yes, the past tense of lie is lay, and lain in the past participle. Let's look at some example sentences. First with lay. The direct object is underlined. I always lay the folded clothes on the bed. That was simple present. We dried the towels by laying them flat in the sun. That's present participle, which is used after a preposition. By laying them, laying the towels flat in the sun. He carefully laid the baby down in the crib. That's simple past. Now some examples with lie. My kids are tired and they want to lie down. Your umbrella is lying over there by the door. That's present continuous. Last night I lay awake in bed for hours. So that's simple past. Again, the past tense of lie is lay. It's so confusing, I know. Unopened letters have lain on his desk for weeks. So have lain, that's the present perfect tense using the past participle form of lie is lain. You might be thinking, wait, then when do we use lied? Well, it's because the verb lie has two meanings. One is something being on a surface, like we've been talking about in this lesson. The cat is lying on the piano. And the other meaning for lie is to say something false, say something that is not true. For example, he said he got a good grade, but he's lying. He actually failed the test. So these two meanings of the verb lie have different forms in the simple past and past participle. When we're talking about something being on a surface, then we have lie in the present, lay in the past, and lain in the past participle. But when we're talking about saying something that is not true, then we have lie in the present, lied in the past, and also lied in the past participle. So here are two simple past sentences. She got a sunburn after she lay on the beach for hours. We're talking about her being on a surface, her being on the beach. So we say she lay on the beach. David lied about his final test grade last semester. So here we're talking about saying something that's not true. The simple past form is lied. Okay, let's review. Lay has a direct object, lie does not. We lay the books down. But we lie down, ourselves, our bodies, on the couch. But informally, many people still say lay down for this situation, even though lie down is technically correct. The forms of the verbs are lay, laying, laid, and laid, and lie, lying, lay, and lain. But lie, meaning not telling the truth, has different forms, lie, lying, lied, and lied. Check out my ebook on 600 plus confusing words explained so you can learn lots more. Again, the link to that is under this video. And now, to make sure you understand the difference between lay and lie and you'll remember it, go ahead and write a couple sentences of your own using each verb. That's your homework for today. Thanks for watching, and I'll talk to you in the next lesson.