Several readers have asked me to discuss the difference between lie and lay.
I hadn’t obliged until now, primarily because I thought it obvious. Also, the worst offenders either don’t read language blogs or don’t care enough to bother. But maybe there’s room in the middle for a refresher.
Raise your hand if you know the difference between lie and lay.
You’d think mattress marketeers would know.
There’s a mattress commercial running lately that encourages shoppers to come in and “lay down.” ARRRGGGHHH!
I recently saw mention of another manufacturer’s product, called the “Lay Down and Sleep.” ARRRGGGHHH!
One of the oldest mattress retailers is known for its jingle, which begins “Lay on it …”
ARRRGGGHHH!
Now, I know plenty of people who “lay down” when they’re tired, “lay on the beach” on a sunny day or “lay in bed” on Saturday mornings. As I type this, even spell check is cringing.
I hate to have to even say it, but it’s lie. When we recline, we lie down—usually on a mattress.
I admit, it gets confusing when the past tense comes into play:
Present tense = lie (She lies awake at night.)
Past tense = lay (She lay awake last night.)
Past participle = lain (She has lain awake since midnight.)
When do we use lay? When there’s an object involved. We lay something down. We lay down the law. We lay a book on the table. Now I lay me down to sleep (technically, it should be reflexive, I lay myself down to sleep, but that spoils the meter of the prayer).
The tenses of lay are as follows:
Present tense = lay (Every year I lay a wreath on the grave.)
Past tense = laid (She laid a mat at the front door.)
Past participle = laid also (The hen has laid an egg every morning this week.
Dear readers (you know who you are), did I explain this clearly, as you requested?
Dear offenders (you know who you are), would you consider making better word choices?
Dear mattress makers (you know who you are, though chances are you’re not reading this), are your marketing agencies asleep on the job?
Maybe instead of “Lay on it, play on it,” they could sing “Lie on it, cry on it,” Lie on it, sigh on it,” “die on it,” “get high on it,” “eat pie on it,” WHATEVER.
To be fair, as lie versus lay goes, there’s bad behavior beyond the bed business. Just listen to some of your favorite songs and you’ll find some doozies.
In elementary school, these adjectival forms were presented in a nursery rhyme beginnig with “Good, Better, Best.” If it weren’t for the fact that I often hear the superlative used incorrectly, I’d say there’s no need for a refresher. (Better, the comparative, pertains to two items, as in “She is the older of the two children.” Best, the superlative, pertains to three or more, as in “He is the tallest boy in the class.”) I’ll come back to violation peeves in a moment, though I’ve griped before.
More and more, I hear it creep into everyday conversation.
According to 
This doesn’t mean I don’t notice trends. One hit me between the eyes this week. Three times in 36 hours, in fact. Does that ever happen to you? Never heard of something and within a day it’s everywhere?
On Tuesday I had jotted a blog idea on the back of an envelope and had only to fill it out. This, you recall, was the day the nation’s policymakers approved the creation of a Super Congress of 12 members, to hammer out solutions to the federal budget crisis later in the year.
Sure, I believe it’s always good to use simple language to get one’s point across. Often the fewer syllables the better. At the same time, I delight in learning new words—and using them. I was once told by an employer to quit using phrases the average Joe wouldn’t know right off the bat. I’m still a little grumpy about that.
Word Nymph 