I am pretty good at catching grammatical errors except for mine it seems. Sometimes I glide over my own grammar faux pas without a second thought, and then, after I’ve had a bit of time and distance, then I can see what wrongs I have written. I usually curse when this happens, but we won’t print that here. Yesterday I was working on some revision of a chapter I had written earlier and found something to the effect of, “…the objects laying along the shore…” I felt a loud “WRONG” scream at me. I knew that the word laying was incorrect, but for the life of me I couldn’t say why exactly. I had to look it up.
The word lie means to recline. Present tense is lie or lying, “I lie in bed. I am lying in bed.” Past tense is lay, “I lay on the bed earlier today after I had a glass of wine.” There’s also the past participle which is has/have lain, “I have lain on that bed many times.” To recline equates to: lie, lay, lain. To recline is a state of being. “I (subject) lie (state of being) in bed (object).”
There is no laid in reference to bed. Truly there isn’t.
The word lay means to place. The present tense is lay or laying, “I lay the pencil on the counter. I am laying it on the counter, Dad. All right?” Past tense is laid, “I laid that pencil on the counter yesterday. Didn’t you see it there?” The past participle is also laid, “I had laid the pencil on the table. I swear I did.” So to place equates to: lay, laid, laid. To place is an action. I (subject) lay (action) the pencil (object) on the counter.
The chicken laid an egg along the shore.
Chickens most certainly can lay many eggs on the shore, but that isn’t what I meant when I wrote “…objects laying along the shore…” Those objects I mentioned were in a state of being. Consequently, I change my sentence to, “…the objects lying along the shore…” because the objects reclined or rested there.
Ahhh. That feels better, doesn’t it? I am sure I have it now.
I guess it’s true what “they” say – that the best way to learn something is to teach it.
