Lie Lady Lie

I accidentally, providentially just stumbled across the fact that today, March 4, is National Grammar Day. This gives me acceptable reason to remind readers of the correct use of LAY and LIE. Oh, my poor family endures my incessant reminders. If they'd just get it right, the reminders would cease. (Or, as I heard on an ad the other night, a woman says, "I don't want to control my husband, I just want him to do what I say!")

Incorrect use of these two tiny words permeates everyday conversation, television, the internet, even newspaper and magazine writing. Unbelievable.

So, class, here we go. Part of this lesson is borrowed from the NGD website.

If you exclude the meaning "to tell an untruth" and just focus on the setting/reclining meaning of lay and lie, then the important distinction is that lay requires a direct object and lie does not. So you lie down on the sofa (no direct object), but you lay the book down on the table (the book is the direct object).

This is in the present tense, where you are talking about doing something now: you lie down on the sofa, and you lay down a book.

Eric Clapton's song Lay Down Sally can actually help you remember the difference between lay and lie ... because he's wrong.

To say “lay down Sally” would imply that someone should grab Sally and lay her down. If he wanted Sally to rest in his arms on her own, the correct line would be “lie down Sally.”

We don't have to judge Clapton on his grammar; we can still love his music and at the same time know that it's grammatically incorrect! In fact, that helps us remember, and we can love him more.

If you're more of a Bob Dylan fan, you can remember that "Lay Lady Lay" is also wrong. The lyrics should be “Lie lady lie, lie across my big brass bed.”

OK, so that was the present tense. It's pretty easy; you lay something down, people lie down by themselves, and Eric and Bob can help us remember.

From Englishplus.com comes this simple clarification of the whole mess.

Lay means "to place something down." It is something you do to something else. It is a transitive verb.

Incorrect: Lie the book on the table.
Correct: Lay the book on the table.
(It is being done to something else.)

Lie means "to recline" or "be placed." It does not act on anything or anyone else. It is an intransitive verb.

Incorrect: Lay down on the couch.
Correct: Lie down on the couch.
(It is not being done to anything else.)

The reason lay and lie are confusing is their past tenses.

The past tense of lay is laid.
The past tense of lie is lay.
Incorrect: I lay it down here yesterday.
Correct: I laid it down here yesterday.
(It is being done to something else.)

Incorrect: Last night I laid awake in bed.
Correct: Last night I lay awake in bed.
(It is not being done to anything else.)

To sum it up, just remember this. In our house, two common phrases are:
1. I think I'll LIE down for awhile: I'm tired.
And
2. "LIE down!" as a command to our dog.

Please, let's at least pass good grammar on to our dogs by telling them to lie down, not lay down!

Class dismissed.