Lying Or Laying On The Floor

The present participle of lie is not lieing.

Lying or laying on the floor. If you tell an untruth it is a lie not a lay. When you lay the blanket down blanket is the direct object. Another soldier was lying in a ditch with a rifle. You ve been lying down all day.

The i becomes a y. 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. I was laying the blanket on the floor. Beyond the present tense the pair can become more confusing because lay is the past tense of lie and laid is the.

Lay is a transitive verb meaning it needs to transport something i e. The verbs lay and lie are total jerks people often say lay when they mean lie but it s wrong to lay around you have to lay something anything lay an egg if you want but you can lie around until the cows come home. They are going to lay the carpet. A classroom trick is to say the word out loud.

Grammar and spelling tips don t mix up lie and lay you lay something as in. When writing or speaking the english language the difference between lying and laying is commonly misconstrued and misused. Lying and laying. Sentences such as the following ones are wrong.

But you lie down on a bed or other flat surface. Here is a mnemonic from the website primility to help you tell laying and lying apart. If there is then use a form of lay. And if you are in the process of telling an untruth you are lying and not laying.

He phones hannah s father and apologizes for lying. 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. Although he is in the desert and the weather is dry he has the impression of lying in water.