![]() And I was lying down, not I was laying down.īack to the trick I gave you above: I was placing down yesterday. Argh!!!!! Well, if you think about it, we always use the present participle for those tenses: I was running, not I was ranning I was swimming, not I was swamming. What about the past tenses that use -ing (past progressive)? Was I laying down yesterday or was I lying down yesterday? It is simple past tense (although progressive using the -ing) so should it be was laying? But obviously that isn’t right because was laying belongs to lay. It is a rule I never thought about before because is doesn’t usually come up - but it does with lie. And this “more” is never written about for some reason. I had just lain down when the doorbell rang. If place doesn’t work, it is the lie verb you need. If place works, you use lay or its variations: is laying, was laying, have been laying, had been laying, laid, have laid, had laid, etc. Subsitute the word “place” for your lay or lie. I am going to give you a trick you can use. She will have lain in the sun for three hours by the time we need to leave for dinner.I have lain on this hammock for three hours.And the past participle of lay is laid, which is a lot easier to remember. The past participle of lie is lain, even thought many people have never heard of it. Actually, many people don’t use these tenses at all, especially in speech, where things are often more casual. That is the form we use with have, had or will have in front of it. Yesterday, I laid tile in my bathroom (Past tense of lay because there is a direct object: tile). ![]() Yesterday, I lay in my hammock all day.What did I do maybe yesterday? The past tense of lie is lay. The dog is laying his bone in the doghouse.They are laying a pile of rocks on the side of the road.A pile of rocks is lying on the side of the road.I am laying my book on the hammock while I get my lunch in the house.I am lying on my hammock while I talk on the phone.(present tense lay is correct because you are laying something: book) (present tense lie is correct because there is no noun or pronoun directly after lie) ![]() Here are some examples of using lay and lie and of using the more common progressive tense ( -ing). Now, most people don’t use lie and lay at all for present tense because it sounds odd instead they use a variation of the present tense (progressive present tense, using the present participle form). What does this mean in “regular” terms? You must lay something or someone down. Lay, on the other hand is transitive and does take a direct object. A direct object is a noun (person, place, thing, or idea) or pronoun (takes the place of a noun, e.g., him, her, me, it, them) that receives the action of the verb. Grammatically speaking, lie is an intransitive verb, meaning it takes no direct object after it. We are talking about the reclining kind here. Let’s forget about the definition of lie that means not telling the truth. To lie and to lay are present tense verb forms. Well, I have talked about it before, but bring it on . and here we go.
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