Ever heard the expression, “Let sleeping dogs lie”?
Everyone I’ve ever known to say or write that sentence seemed perfectly willing to let sleeping dogs do exactly that: lie. But when it comes to people—or even dogs who are not already in a position to sleep—the clarity of that verb to lie, meaning to put one’s body in a horizontal position, seems to dissipate into the ether.
Why are sleeping dogs allowed to lie wherever they may have plumped themselves down for a snooze, but dogs up running around are told to “lay down”?
And people are told to “lay still for a while” or requested to “come lay down with me” even though our third grade teachers tried their best to drill it into our heads that the verb to lie, in this instance, has present, past, and participle forms of lie, lay, lain (not to be confused with that other verb to lie, meaning to knowingly tell a falsehood, which takes the verb forms lie, lied, lied).
And still we often confuse the verb to lie with the related verb to lay, meaning to set something down, which takes the verb forms lay, laid, laid.
Whew! Okay, this is a bit confusing, but that’s the English language for you.
And so it is that I often come across the verb lay being incorrectly used to mean lie in my reading, even by otherwise excellent writers published by major publishing houses.
If only that pesky dog would just stay asleep! (You can close that eye again, Breakfast.) But at least while he is asleep, he can help us keep our verbs straight.
The key here is to remember that while dogs (or other beings) can lay their bodies down, they themselves just lie down. A hen can lay an egg, and then you can lay that egg in a basket and lay the basket on the table, but you yourself cannot simply lay down.
You can lay a pillow on the sofa and then lay your head on that pillow and stretch out on the sofa as you lie down, but you cannot simply lay on the sofa.
The relevant verb to lie is an intransitive verb that does not take an object; it just does its own thing, so to speak.
The verb to lay, on the other hand, takes a direct object, so if you lay, you must lay something somewhere.
I realize this Literary License article is a departure from the usual fare, but this lay-for-lie issue is probably the second most common misuse of a word that I note in my reading (we’ll save farther vs. further for another time), and it hurts me every time the use of the word lay to mean lie jerks me out of a darn good story, so I’m taking a preventative measure here. Well, that and it gives me an excuse to use one of my favorite photos, “Breakfast in Bed.”
Rest in peace, Breakfast, and feel free to lie on whatever blankie may beckon.
© 2023 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.
Photo “Breakfast in Bed” © 2015 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.