Lying On The Bed

To lay is a transitive verb.

Lying on the bed. Lie tell untruth or a falsehood lying lied an untruth is a lie telling an untruth is lying. In the present tense both lay and lie mean to rest or recline the difference between them is whether the verb. She had lain on the bed for hours before her mother arrived he should lie down and rest a bit they are going to lay the carpet in her bedroom female chickens lay eggs the eggs lie in a nest other lie. Lie means to recline while lay means to put down.

Here are two examples. The second sentence is incorrect unless you are about to lay an egg. It is an indicator of state not action. Correct they are laying a new carpet.

Once you know how to use both words in their right tenses your vocabulary will improve. Wrong they are lying a new carpet. Unless you are a chicken you are lying on the bed. Because you need a direct object only with lay you will know that the past tense is laid.

The past tense of lie as in to tell an untruth is lied as you can see the past tense of lie is lay but the past tense of lay is laid which is a recipe for confusion to remember that laid as opposed to lain is the past tense of lay just memorize this phrase. The past tense and participle of lie is. People often misuse these words and especially their past tenses. It can be reflexive i lay myself i am laying myself i was laying myself but it requires an object noun.

Lying could also be used when a person is telling an untruth. Well the answer is both depending on the tense you are using. She is laying the blanket on the bed. In the present tense we lie in bed but in the past tense a person lay in bed.

According to google ngrams lying in bed is much more common. So do we lay or lie in bed. To lie by contrast is intransitive. The confusion with lay and lie comes from the overlap between the verbs tenses.

Conversely if you are laying something you cannot use lying.