# Grammar: Lay? Lied? Laid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954 "2007-07-08T11:12:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954/21 "2007-07-09T05:14:37Z")
Ken **Lay lied** but sadly died before incarceration, and was **laid** to rest. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954/22 "2007-07-09T12:50:33Z")
You don’t lay down for a rest, you _lie_ down for a rest. Nobody I know talks of “having a lay down”, you have a lie down. But the confusion comes from the fact that the past tense of “lie” is “lay”. So yesterday you lay down, and you could have lain in bed all day. The verb “to lay” has nothing to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954/23 "2007-07-09T13:05:15Z")
I think they do “lay down to rest” in American English. It certainly sounds American to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954/24 "2007-07-09T17:23:32Z")
[QUOTE=commasense] IME, approximately 97.4% of the population use “lie” in its present and participial forms when they are speaking about telling lies, and “lay” about people or things reclining or resting, regardless of the transitive or intransitive nature of the case. IOW, they say, “I’m going to lay down now,” or “He’s been laying there all day.” The transitive/intransitive distinction is almost never observed in ordinary speech. [/QUOTE] Either you’re lying :), or the population in your neck of the woods has their own dialect that doesn’t observe the distinction. But if what you said is true, that hardly anybody uses “lie” to mean recline or rest, I wouldn’t have gotten 2,180,000 Google hits for the phrase “lie down.” My own experience is that, while the incorrect usage is rampant, it’s still not as common as the correct one. And misuse of “lay” grates on my ears every time I hear it, even though it is common. > [@](#): > > Now, I’m one of the world’s leading grammar dictators. Don’t try splitting infinitives around me. You’ll be sorry you tried. But this is one case in which I feel that it’s not worth fighting for the “rule.” On the contrary, the lie=deception/lay=resting distinction is clear and easy, the reason for the rule is sufficiently obscure, and the opportunity for misunderstanding is relatively low. > > So I say, if you want to lay down, go ahead and do it. I’m not going to stop you. > > But don’t end your sentence with a preposition! So, as a “grammar dictator,” you’re going to enforce [bogus](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=426974) [rules](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=406357) but not legitimate ones? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954/25 "2007-07-09T17:54:02Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] You don’t lay down for a rest, you _lie_ down for a rest. [/QUOTE] I know that that’s the rule, but here in the States it is rarely observed **in ordinary speech** (which is what I was referring to\*, **Thudlow** , not the written word). BTW, I got 2,580,000 for “lay down,” proving once again that Google doesn’t prove anything. But IME, a vast majority of Americans will **say** (if not write), “I’m going to lay down,” rather than “lie down.” And I’m tired of trying to correct them. \*As you can see, I know that split infinitives and terminal prepositions are bogus rules. I was kidding. And I’m not really a dictator, either. Sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954/26 "2007-07-09T18:03:11Z")
[QUOTE=commasense] BTW, I got 2,580,000 for “lay down,” proving once again that Google doesn’t prove anything. [/QUOTE] So did I, but I didn’t know any way of sorting out how many of those were the (correct) past tense of “lie” (e.g. “Yesterday I lay down for a nap”), how many used the word “lay” (correctly) with a direct object (e.g. “lay down the law”), and how many used “lay down” incorrectly when “lie down” would have been correct. But I will grant you that Google doesn’t prove anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-lay-lied-laid/410954.md?page=1)