Buzz
Deciding whether to use lie or lay can be challenging for a couple of reasons. First, lay serves as both its own verb and the past tense of lie. Second, incorrect usage is so widespread that the correct form might seem unusual in some situations.
The primary distinction between these verbs is that lie is intransitive and doesn’t take a direct object, while lay is transitive and requires one. For instance, if you recline on your bed, you lie on it. If you put your baby in the crib, you lay your baby there (your baby being the direct object). Essentially, you can’t lie something, but you must lay something.
The past tense adds complexity because lay doubles as the past tense of lie. To describe reclining on your bed in the past, you’d say, “I lay on the bed.” While “I laid on the bed” might sound more familiar, laid is the past tense of lay and requires a direct object. For example, “I laid the baby on the bed.”
Past participles can also be tricky. For lie, the past participle is lain, as in, “I have never lain on such a comfortable bed.” For lay, it’s laid
In everyday speech, it’s common to use lay and its forms for all situations, reserving lie for more formal contexts. This isn’t inherently incorrect—and according to Merriam-Webster, people have been confusing these two verbs for about 700 years.
However, if you want to strive for accuracy, here’s a handy chart to help you distinguish between the two:
Infinitive | Type of Verb | Present Tense | Past Tense | Past Participle | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
To lie | Intransitive (no direct object) | lie | lay | lain | I lie/lay/have lain on the couch. |
To lay | Transitive (needs direct object) | lay | laid | laid | I lay/laid/have laid my baby in the crib. |
