Lie / Lay

It's been too long… far too long. December 2011... I'm embarrassed.

I've been involved in many things, and I offer my sincerest apologies for my absence.

I'm terrible at remembering about my blogs. Amusingly though, I sometimes still write the entries (I just don't post them).
However, yesterday my friend Sandy (She's amazing and a very inspirational writer, so check her out!) posted something on my Facebook wall, and thus here we are today.

Today (really it was April 2012... a full year ago), whilst talking to a friend online, she said, "I'm laying in bed"; that comment inspired this entry.

Anyhow, a simple difference between "Lie" and "Lay".

It's actually far simpler than people think.

Let's ignore the fact that "lie" also means, "intentionally speaking falsities".

We're going to tackle the present tense first.

Lie: To assume a horizontal resting position

Lay: To be put in the above mentioned position.

It's that simple. Lie is what YOU do. Lay is what you do TO something.

I lie down in bed.

I lay the pencil on the floor.

Of course, then we get to past tense. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Now it gets VERY fun!

The past tense of "Lay" is "Laid" and the past of "Lie" is "Lay". Oh man that's confusing!

Not as confusing as you think though.

Yesterday, I laid that pencil on the floor.

Yesterday, I lay on the sofa for two hours.

I'm laying the law on "Lie" and "Lay", and I won't take it lying down.