QT 10 – Video Transcript and Bonus Info
Hey everyone, it’s 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTake with Cate.
This episode is dedicated to my personal trainer, whose tortures include wall balls, sled pushes, and battle ropes. But there is no worse torture than her order to “lay down!” It’s not holding the plank for two minutes, folks. It’s holding the plank for two minutes before I can reply, “It’s not lay; it’s lie!” And what do I get for my trouble? A set of burpees.
Lay and lie are examples of irregular verbs. “Lay” means to place an object down. “Lie” means to recline. They are two separate verbs with separate meanings.
As irregular verbs, they change forms for past tense, past participle, and present participle like this:
Notice that the past tense form for “lie” is spelled the same way as that other word, “lay.” And here lies the confusion!
So how do we use these different verbs correctly? The verb “lay,” meaning “to place an object down,” must always be followed by an answer to the question, “lay what?” That answer is called the direct object. The verb “lie,” meaning to recline, can never be followed by a direct object.
- Today, I lay the bone down. Yesterday, I laid the bone down. Last week, I had laid the bone down. I was laying the bone down when it fell off the table.”
- Today, I lie (in the hammock).* Yesterday, I lay in the hammock. Last week, I had lain in the hammock when a helicopter flew by. I was lying in the hammock when a grapefruit fell from the tree.”
*in the hammock is a prepositional phrase
If you say, “Last week I laid in the hammock,” that means that when you got up, there should have been a golden egg!
The gym isn’t the only place you hear “lay down.” Think of all the people who tell their dogs to “lay down.” And you wonder why your dog doesn’t obey. Poor creature is wondering what it is you want him to lay down—his bone, your wallet, the dead mouse. Try telling your dog to “lie down” and see what happens!
The rest of the story:
Both sentences have the action verb “sing.” But in the first sentence, there is no answer to the verb question “sings what?” Here, the verb “sing” is intransitive because it does not carry meaning over into another word (the direct object).
In the second sentence, we ask the same question, “sings what?” and the answer is “a song.” The verb “sing” is now transitive because it carries meaning over into another word, called the direct object.
Some verbs, like “sing,” can be both transitive and intransitive. Other verbs cannot. “Lay” and “lie” are examples. The verb “lay” is transitive. That is, it must always be followed by a direct object. The verb “lie” is intransitive. It can never take an object. Both the past participle and present participle forms must have helping verbs before them (had, have, is, was, were).
See if you can select the correct verb in the following sentences:
- The toddler was so cranky that his mother lay/laid him down for a nap.
- The mother decided to lie/lay down for a nap herself.
- Magazines dating from 1940 were lying/laying on the coffee table.
- She had just laid/lain the picnic blanket on the grass when it began to rain.
- The possum was laying/lying on the road, playing dead.
Here are some hints: (1) place, (2) recline, (3) recline, (4) place (5) recline