_(In the Chapel)_ The appointed lot has come upon me, mother, The mournful ending of my years of strife, This changing world I leave, and to another In blood and terror goes my spirit's life. But thou, grief-smitten, cease thy mortal we... Read more of Farewell To My Mother at Martin Luther King.caInformational Site Network Informational.ca
Privacy
    Home   Articles   Quiz Questions   Punctuation   Fiction Writing   News Writing   Lecturing

Speaking Writing Articles

Thesethose
"Don't say, These kind; those sort. Kind and sort are each si...

Other And Another
These are words which often give to expressions a meaning far...

Letters
A letter is a mark or character used to represent an articula...

Harmony
Harmony is that property of style which gives a smoothness to...

Suggestions
Rules of grammar and rhetoric are good in their own pla...

Summonsummons
Don't say "I shall summons him," but "I shall summon him." Su...

What Conversation Is And What It Is Not
Good conversation is more easily defined by what it is not ...

Undeniableunexceptionable
"My brother has an undeniable character" is wrong if I wish t...


LAYLIE




Common Stumbling Blocks - Peculiar Constructions - Misused Forms.

The transitive verb lay, and lay, the past tense of the neuter verb
lie, are often confounded, though quite different in meaning. The
neuter verb to lie, meaning to lie down or rest, cannot take the
objective after it except with a preposition. We can say "He lies on
the ground," but we cannot say "He lies the ground," since the verb is
neuter and intransitive and, as such, cannot have a direct object. With
lay it is different. Lay is a transitive verb, therefore it takes a
direct object after it; as "I lay a wager," "I laid the carpet," etc.

Of a carpet or any inanimate subject we should say, "It lies on the
floor," "A knife lies on the table," not lays. But of a person we
say--"He lays the knife on the table," not "He lies----." Lay being
the past tense of the neuter to lie (down) we should say, "He lay on
the bed," and lain being its past participle we must also say "He has
lain on the bed."

We can say "I lay myself down." "He laid himself down" and such
expressions.

It is imperative to remember in using these verbs that to lay means to
do something, and to lie means to be in a state of rest.





Next: SAYS II SAID
Previous: RISERAISE


Add to del.icio.us Add to Reddit Add to Digg Add to Del.icio.us Add to Google Add to Furl Add to Stumble Upon
Add to Informational Site Network
Report
Privacy
SHAREBOOKMARK