There is no denying that English is a weird and complicated language. It’s because people have used these words in the ways they have that their official definitions have come into place. The difference goes back to before the English language was ever a thing.īut ultimately, the reason why we have all these rules related to “lying” and “laying” is that languages are determined by popularity.
It wasn’t until Proto-Germanic that they split into two separate words. With all of these strange rules, it does beg the question “why?”.Īs we’ve already established, both words come from the Proto-Indo-European “legh”. And if “good things lie at your door”, you can expect a lot of positivity to happen in your future. If a politician changes his mind a lot, his stance on any topic could depend on “which way the wind lies”. If you don’t want to be seen (for whatever reason), you could lie low. When you make a mistake, then moan about the consequences, I might tell you “you’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it”. There are also plenty of idioms based on “lying”. When your past is behind you, you will have “laid the ghost”. If something is your right, you could be said to “lay claim to it”, and when you make your table ready for a meal, you could be told to “lay the table”. When “laying down the law”, you are making the rules clear. If someone is laid back, they don’t like to take anything too seriously. Your favourite restaurant might lie next to the nail salon.īut even sticking with the definition laid out at the beginning, there are plenty of common phrases that use “lay”. Likewise with “lie”, you can “tell a lie” (an untruth), or objects can lie. And when you “lay a hedge”, you will have trimmed it. If you “lay a course”, you will have followed a particular guide to get to your intended location. Usually, this is a one night encounter and not something that will go much further beyond that. If you “get laid”, that will mean that you’ve had sex. Let’s take a quick look at just a few examples. We can apply other definitions to most of the words in the table above. Or you could say “I lay down at nine last night, but I didn’t sleep until midnight”. You could either say “I lay the table at 6:00 each evening”. lie(s) Lay Lain lyingĪs we can see, you can use the word “lay” to describe something you do yourself and something you do to something else. lay(s) Laid Laid Laying Lie To be vertical on your back or stomach. Present Past Past Participle Present Participle Lay To place something down. Here is a table to help you decide which word you should be used based on the definition and tense. So long as you are putting something down, that thing can be physical or an idea. Meaning he is putting in place the laws that people will need to obey. You might hear a policeman say that he is “laying down the law”. However, laying doesn’t just have to be with physical objects. Likewise, when a bird lays her eggs, she is placing them into her nest. So when you say you are “laying the table”, you are putting all the cutlery onto the table. If you “lay” something, you are putting it onto something else, gently. What get laid? (and no, the answer isn’t “not you”) However, it was likely to avoid confusing the two concepts. Why did they decide to do this? I can’t say for sure. However, it was when Proto-Indo-European evolved into Proto-Germanic that laying and lying became two different things. Back then, language was far less complex than it is today. When language first became a thing, the two were the same. However, what connects the words “Lay” and “lie” is the Proto-Indo-European word “legh”. “licgan” comes from the Proto-Germanic “legjan”. Lie, on the other hand, comes from the Old English “licgan”, you might have noticed, this is only one letter away from the Old English “lecgan”. This language was one of the first to arise it’s the base language upon which most other western languages are based. “lecgan” comes from the Proto-Germanic “lagojanan”, and that word comes from the Proto-Indo-European “legh”. Over time, our language changed until the new version became unrecognisable from the old. Old English was one of the earliest forms of our language.
The word lay comes from the Old English “lecgan”. Watch the video: Only 1 percent of our visitors get these 3 grammar questions right.