Lie? Lay? Help!

Have I explained lie and lay yet? Don’t stop reading! It’s easier than you think.

All you have to do is remember what my grandmother always said: “Chickens lay. People lie.”

To lie is to assume a horizontal position. And this is the key: It does not take an object. You don’t lie something. You just lie. You lie on the bed, you lie on the floor, you lie on a bench. But you don’t lie an egg.

To lay is to place something on a surface. It takes an object. You lay something somewhere–you lay a book on a desk, you lay a pencil on the book, you lay a paperclip on the pencil. And a chicken lays an egg.

So if you’re doing something to an object, just as the chicken does to an egg–it’s lay.

If there is no egg or equivalent, then it’s lie.

More next week on the complexities of lie and lay!