The Continuing Drama of Lay and Lie

In last week’s Tips and Tricks, I began the discussion of the ever confusing lie vs. lay by focusing only on the present tense. Assuming we are all on the same page and up to speed with our present tenses, let’s muddy the water by shifting our attention to the past tense and the past participle tense.

(Remember, we are talking about lie as in “to recline” and lay as in “to put or place.” The present tense of lie is lie or lying. The present tense of lay is lay or laying.)

To begin the confusion, let’s look at the past tense of lie. The past tense of lie (to recline) is lay — as in “Yesterday afternoon, I lay on my bed for an hour.” Wait! Let me get this straight — the past tense of lie (to recline) is LAY? Yes, as confusing as it may be, lay is the past tense form of to lie (to recline).

The past participle tense (when we use have, has or had) of lie (to recline) is lain — as in “She has lain on the bed all day.”

Got it? Okay, moving on to the verb lay (to put or place):

The past tense of lay (to put or place) is laid — as in “Yesterday afternoon, I laid the folder on your desk.”

And the past participle tense (using have, has or had) of lay (to put or place) is also laid — as in “She had laid the revised proposal on her boss’s desk before leaving for the day.” Well, that is easier to remember because the past tense and the past participle tense are the same word — laid!

For quick reference, I’ve created a little chart to help you keep track of these tricky verbs:

Feel like you’ve got it down or want to see if you can remember which verb and tense is which? Test your knowledge of lie vs. lay in this quiz from GrammarBook.com.

The Here and Now of Lay and Lie

Driving to work this morning, I caught myself singing along to Bob Dylan’s song “Lay, Lady, Lay” as it played on the radio. As I belted out the familiar lyrics, I was struck by yet another casualty of the ever confusing “lay vs. lie.” To avoid this mistake ourselves, let’s take a quick look at these two tricky verbs.

*Note: For this post, we’re not talking about “to lie” to mean “to tell an untruth”, but the “to recline or to set” meaning.

The key is to remember that in the present tense, lay requires a direct object and lie does not. For instance:

• You lay the folder on his desk. (The folder is the direct object)
• You lie in the afternoon’s hot sun. (No direct object)

When talking about doing something now, you lie in the sun, and you lay down the folder.

Here are two tricks to help you to remember when to use lay and when to use lie:

1. The famous Bob Dylan song that I heard in the car this morning, “Lay, Lady, Lay” is grammatically incorrect! “Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed,” implies that someone else is placing Dylan’s lady on his big brass bed, which isn’t his intended meaning. Dylan is imploring his lady to stay with him, and grammatically speaking, Dylan should have said, “Lie, lady, lie, lie across my big brass bed.” (The same grammatical error occurs in Eric Clapton’s song “Lay Down Sally.”)
2. County music artist Chris Young’s song “Lay It on Me” uses lay correctly! When Young sings about his lady’s kiss that he wants her to “come on and lay it on me,” the kiss is the direct object that he wants placed upon him.

So in the present tense, in the here and now, Bob Dylan’s “Lay, Lady, Lay” is wrong because you lie across his big brass bed, and Chris Young’s “Lay It on Me” is right because whatever “it” is, it’s a direct object.

Remember, this is just the present tense use of these tricky verbs. I’ll tackle the even more confusing past and past participle tenses of lay and lie in next week’s exciting installment of Tips & Tricks.