The more you can connect to the actual definitions of lying and laying the easier it becomes to use each word correctly for the specific acts.
Lying or laying on the floor.
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.
Another soldier was lying in a ditch with a rifle.
Lying and laying.
Grammar and spelling tips don t mix up lie and lay you lay something as in.
But you lie down on a bed or other flat surface.
When writing or speaking the english language the difference between lying and laying is commonly misconstrued and misused.
I was laying the blanket on the floor.
A classroom trick is to say the word out loud.
If you tell an untruth it is a lie not a lay.
When you lay the blanket down blanket is the direct object.
If there is then use a form of lay.
You ve been lying down all day.
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.
And if you are in the process of telling an untruth you are lying and not laying.
They are going to lay the carpet.
Beyond the present tense the pair can become more confusing because lay is the past tense of lie and laid is the.
Here is a mnemonic from the website primility to help you tell laying and lying apart.
Sentences such as the following ones are wrong.
Although he is in the desert and the weather is dry he has the impression of lying in water.
The present participle of lie is not lieing.
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.
The i becomes a y.
He phones hannah s father and apologizes for lying.