She lay<\/span> her pen down after two hours of taking notes for her emegency medicine shelf exam.<\/strong><\/p>\n The pen is the object<\/p>\n\n\n I mentioned that I desperately needed a mnemonic so I didn\u2019t have to keep double-checking I was using the correct word. Enter grammar guru Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl. Her trick that works best for me is to think of the phrase \u201clay it on me.\u201d You could also think of \u201clay it on thick.\u201d The use of it<\/strong> after \u201clay\u201d helps me remember that lay should involve an object, an \u201cit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To lie, on the other hand, is to rest in a horizontal position, and it doesn\u2019t take an object\u2014lie doesn\u2019t need an \u201cit.\u201d To lie can also mean to tell an untruth (it’s one of those fun homographs, or a word whose same spelling has multiple meanings), but luckily we don’t use “lay” to refer to false statements. So, when you want your dog to rest horizontally, you should tell it to go lie<\/strong> down (one of the few commands my dog, Arthur, understands).<\/p>\n\n\n I spent a full day doing family medicine board review, so I\u2019m going to lie<\/span> in bed for at least 12 hours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Once you get those two nailed down and you\u2019re feeling great about the present tense, past tenses and participles step in and mess everything up. Why? Because the past tense of lie is\u2026lay.<\/p>\n\n\n Last night, I lay<\/span> on the couch and binged TV for five hours straight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Whose bright idea was this? I don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s confusing, so I\u2019ve created a table for you to reference if needed (I still use this when I\u2019m not writing in the present tense).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy! And if you\u2019re ever dreaming of lying in a sunny field, make sure you lay down a blanket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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