# Lie down vs. lay down, and why my head may explode **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 14, 2025, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025 "2025-08-14T08:05:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/21 "2025-08-14T13:36:22Z")
I get a headache, too, when I try to explain the proper use of “swim,” “swam,” and “swum.” Nobody seems to use these correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/22 "2025-08-14T13:57:15Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > So now you are dealing with bad conjugation, or genuinely mixing up the preterite and present perfect; combine that with lie vs. lay, and are you surprised you get all sorts of random combinations? [“Romanes eunt domus”?](https://youtu.be/wjOfQfxmTLQ?si=62cOBpnYK5N4_ewC) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/23 "2025-08-14T14:09:13Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > I get a headache, too, when I try to explain the proper use of “swim,” “swam,” and “swum.” Nobody seems to use these correctly. I was just going to bring those words up. Also, hang, hanged, hung. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/24 "2025-08-14T14:17:29Z")
As any pedant can tell you, it should have been _Honey, I **Shrank** the Kids_. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/25 "2025-08-14T14:20:33Z")
Lay has an object, like an egg. _Lay the doormat in the hall._ Lie doesn’t. _I’m going to lie down._ I don’t care beyond that. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/26 "2025-08-14T14:22:31Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > This is how language changes > > Yep. If everyone is getting it wrong, they’re not. Exactly. This is a perfect example of a speech form that is correct, because the speakers and the listeners all agree that it correct: > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The other teachers say to them “Lay down.” And they don’t say “Lay yourself down,” for the record, just “Lay down,” imperative, no object, direct or indirect. > > The kids lie down when they hear it, but they lie down just the same when I say “Lie down.” I don’t see any inherent reason that a transitive verb can’t be used as a command. Other examples off the top of my head, “wash up”, “read”, “eat”. The object is implied, just as the subject is. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/27 "2025-08-14T14:24:21Z")
Strangely, I only misuse the word when I tell a dog to “Lay down!”. I wonder how many pets would actually understand a command to “Lie down!”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/28 "2025-08-14T14:26:26Z")
> [@peedin](#): > > Lay has an object, like an egg. Or me. _“Now I lay me down to sleep…”_ ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/29 "2025-08-14T14:28:47Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > For irregular verbs, usually the two forms are distinct from each other, but in the past hundred years or so, there has been a gradual tendency to make them the same for a particular verb. And irregular verbs tend to become regular. No one says “I shew everyone my cards” or “I wrought from home yesterday” anymore. I still use “lit” instead of “lighted” and “pled” instead of “pleaded”, but the older forms are rapidly becoming outdated. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/30 "2025-08-14T14:31:21Z")
Correct. An interesting exception is “sneak". It used to be regular (sneak, sneaked, sneaked), but is gradually tending toward irregular over the past few decades (sneak, snuck, snuck), probably due to its similarity to words like “stick.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/31 "2025-08-14T14:33:00Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > An interesting exception is “sneak". Another one is “quit,” whose past tense used to be “quitted.” ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/32 "2025-08-14T14:44:51Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Yep. If everyone is getting it wrong, they’re not. Sure, but by the same token, in the absence of absolute rightness and wrongess in the areas of linguistic usage and style, there is nothing inherently “wrong” with a preference for linguistic precision. It depends on how one’s brain is wired. Mine is wired for an appreciation of both natural language and computer languages, and the essential precision of the latter sometimes gets me annoyed with the illogical quirks of the former. And I don’t think my brain is wired “wrong”. Put another way, try applying your maxim “If everyone is getting it wrong, they’re not” to computer code. Then it becomes “If everyone is getting it wrong, none of their programs work”. You cannot, for instance, arbitrarily drop a logical negation like “.NOT.” and expect the statement to have exactly the same meaning as before. The reality is that human language really is a similar type of encoding, except that our organic brains are conditioned to make fuzzy-logic context-sensitive interpretations. I fully understand that natural language changes, and often in crazy and illogical ways that are sometimes useful and even beautiful, but more often not. I especially object to deliberate affectations like biz-speak. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/33 "2025-08-14T16:03:51Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I am pretty sure all of us here, as well as all native and non-native students of English, are taught the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. I had a good public school education in the 60s and 70s. I never learned this and I’m not now even sure what those words mean. My guess is that my grammar lessons fell through the cracks, with 5th grade teacher thinking we learned it last year and 4th grade thinking we’d learn it next year. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/34 "2025-08-14T16:12:12Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Now do “dragged” vs “drug”. Or “hanged” vs “hung”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/35 "2025-08-14T16:24:43Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Now do “dragged” vs “drug”. “This man’s been drugged!” “Of course! I drug him all the way here!” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/36 "2025-08-14T16:28:39Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Strangely, I only misuse the word when I tell a dog to “Lay down!”. I wonder how many pets would actually understand a command to “Lie down!”. I had an English teacher in high school that taught her dog to “lie down”. The dog would not react if you said “lay down”. One of my favorite Shel Silversteen poems… > [@](#): > > Chester come to school and said > “Durned, I growed another head!” > Teacher said “It’s time you knowed > The word is ‘grewed’ instead of ‘growed’.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/37 "2025-08-14T16:30:54Z")
Really? I could have sworn I learned this as “snuck.” “Sneaked” as a past participle always sounded weird to me. The current dictionaries allow it. Going down a bit of a rabbit hole, I do see references from the early-mid-90s saying that it used to be considered non-standard, but by that time it was being used by more and more professional writers. I see the Macmillan Dictionary of 1990 has “sneaked or snuck” as its participle form. So it looks like it was firmly making the transition from non-standard to (alternative) standard in the 80s, which is when I would have been in elementary school. So it’s unlikely I learned it that way from my teachers, but most likely I learned it from usage. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/38 "2025-08-14T16:32:28Z")
Some pedants will insist that people have “hanged” themselves, not “hung themselves” like a painting on a wall. As if that sort of differentiation in terminology is the least bit useful. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/39 "2025-08-14T17:01:01Z")
The first time I ever heard the word “snuck” was in an episode of the 1960s series “Family Affair.” Mr. French upbraided Jody for having used it. It’s rare to hear “sneaked” nowadays in conversation, and I’ve seen it recently in print media. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025/40 "2025-08-14T17:03:08Z")
IMO the reason why those two words are confused and used wrongly so often is because their tenses are really entangled. To be specific, the word “lay” is the present tense of the verb “to lay”, but it is also the past tense of the verb “to lie”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lie-down-vs-lay-down-and-why-my-head-may-explode/1022025.md?page=3)