Lie or Lay

Confusion comes in the way the lie and lay verbs are used in different tenses.

1. The verb lie means to tell something that isn’t true. Jack is lying. He lies now, lied yesterday, and has lied more times than one can count.
2. Or lie means to be at rest. Jack lies now, lay yesterday, and has lain when tired.
3. Lay means to put or place something. If a chicken yields an egg, it lays now, laid yesterday, and has laid an egg almost every day.

When the grammatically correct verb form doesn’t match what is common in everyday speech, find a different word so readers won’t mistakenly think you wrote incorrectly.

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