Grammar tip of the day:
Using lay versus lie has come up quite a bit, so here’s a re-do of my 2013 post on these tricky words.
Lay is an active verb. A person picks up a book and lays it on a chair. A chicken lays an egg. (The person and chicken are active.)
Lie is a still verb. People lie on beds. Cats lie on people. Fleas lie on cats. (The people, cats, and fleas are still.)
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Lay: to place or set something
| Simple | Progressive | Perfect | Perfect progressive (action continues for a while) | |
| Present | I lay
You lay He/she/it lays They lay | I am laying
You are laying She is laying They are laying | I have laid
You have laid She has laid They have laid | I have been laying
You have been laying She has been laying They have been laying |
| Past | I laid
You laid She laid They laid |
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Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 