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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.
Lie is a verb which means ‘to be in or put yourself into a flat position’. It is an irregular verb and it doesn’t take an object. The -ing form is lying and the past simple is lay. The -ed form, lain, is very formal and is rarely used: I love to lie on a beach and read.
Lay is a verb that commonly means “to put or set (something) down.” Lie is a verb that commonly means “to be in or to assume a horizontal position” (or “to make an untrue statement,” but we’ll focus on the first definition). In other words, lay takes a direct object, and lie does not.
18 maj 2009 · „Lie” ma dwa znaczenia. Pierwsze to „kłamać” i to akurat nie sprawia problemu, zazwyczaj o tym pamiętamy. Jest to czasownik regularny, więc czas przeszły to „lied”. Drugie znaczenie „lie” jest mylące z „lay”, bo „lie” znaczy też „leżeć”, i wtedy jest czasownikiem nieregularnym, który odmienia się: lie – lay – lain.
22 cze 2023 · The past tense of lay is laid, but be careful with the past tense of lie—there are two options. We’ll dive into them later.
We have LIE in the present, LYING in the present participle (note that we spell it LYING, not LIEING), LAY in the past tense – yes! The past tense of “lie” is “lay” – and LAIN in the past participle.
The verb lay is transitive. You lay something on the table. The verb lie is intransitive. You lie on the table when you are operated upon. The confusion comes because the past tense of lie is lay: He lay on the table for two hours before he was operated upon. Few native speakers get this right.
