sid: (Holiday ornament)
[personal profile] sid
Actually, I know it's "lie", I'm just not positive which form of the word to use.  Which means it could wind up being "lay"!  Help me please?  

Solved!  Thank you!

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 04:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cleothemuse.livejournal.com
Sure. "Lay" it on me!

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 04:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cleothemuse.livejournal.com
"Lying" is correct. If you said "as he lay on the ground, looking up", then it would be lay. In this case, if I remember my sentence structure terminology correctly, the infinitive "to lie" should be a present participle, which is "lying".

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 04:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cleothemuse.livejournal.com
...and we even used the same example for "lay"!

You're most welcome. All this crap in my brain's gotta be good for something once in a while.

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 04:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] green-grrl.livejournal.com
I'll give you an official grammarian read. ;-)

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 04:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] green-grrl.livejournal.com
Nope, absolutely "lying." Even if it were the past progressive, it would be "As he was lying on the ground ...." The only way "lay" would come into it is if it were simple past tense: "As he lay on the ground ...."

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 04:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] green-grrl.livejournal.com
It's the past tense where the lie/lay thing gets tricky, so my inner grammar maven thanks you for checking it!

(no subject)

Date: Dec. 19th, 2007 05:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] or-mabinogi.livejournal.com
I lie, I lay, I have/had laid...

otoh

I lay, I laid, I have/had lain...

But that's only Present, Imperfect, Perfect/Pluperfect for each.

I tend to remember which one to use by saying "If I can set an item, I can lay it. But if I can sit, I can lie. And that's the truth!" :-) (But then I learned the difference when I learned the German verbs setzen and sitzen... which is odd considering they aren't so different....

And why do I babble when you already said your query was answered... ?

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