• Watch carefully as I lay the rabbit
on the table.
• As you can see, the rabbit will lie
down on the table.
People confuse lay and lie because
the past tense of lie is lay.
If you memorize these two progressions, you’ll have a much easier
time
keeping everything straight:
• Now I have to lay this tomato on the
cutting board.
• Yesterday, I laid a tomato on the cutting
board.
• I had just laid the tomato down when
you called.
• I think I’ll lie down for a while.
• Yesterday I lay awake instead of napping.
• I could have lain there fruitlessly,
but instead I got up and vacuumed.
