Your best bet when deciding between the variations of lay and lie is to determine whether there is a direct object you re referring to.
Lying on the floor vs laying.
The same rules apply as lie and lay with lying being an action you perform and laying an action you preform on something.
When writing or speaking the english language the difference between lying and laying is commonly misconstrued and misused.
Beyond the present tense the pair can become more confusing because lay is the past tense of lie and laid is the.
Varner is lying on a bed under multiple layers of sheets.
The present participle of lie is not lieing.
Although he is in the desert and the weather is dry he has the impression of lying in water.
Try lying on your back on your side and stomach.
Sentences such as the following ones are wrong.
But you lie down on a bed or other flat surface.
A classroom trick is to say the word out loud.
The i becomes a y.
Lie down on the floor.
The more you can connect to the actual definitions of lying and laying the easier it becomes to use each word correctly for the specific acts.
And if you are in the process of telling an untruth you are lying and not laying.
Lay means to place something down flat while lie means to be in a flat position on a surface the key difference is that lay is transitive and requires an object to act upon and lie is intransitive describing something moving on its own or already in position.
If you tell an untruth it is a lie not a lay.
If there is then use a form of lay.
They are going to lay the carpet.
If you re on your back or stomach put your knees on a.
Here is a mnemonic from the website primility to help you tell laying and lying apart.
Just as lie and lay can get mixed up there is a confusion with the present participles laying and lying.
Another soldier was lying in a ditch with a rifle.
I was laying the blanket on the floor.
He phones hannah s father and apologizes for lying.
Lying and laying.
You ve been lying down all day.
A crunch begins with lying face up on the floor with knees bent.