คอลัมน์สนทนาภาษาอังกฤษrพร้อมเสียงของสาวออฟฟิศในสำนวนง่ายๆ ที่นำเสนอวลีหรือประโยคที่น่าจดจำและนำไปใช้งานได้จริง

Lie, Lie and Lay

Learning three forms of a verb is challenging even for a native speaker, let alone words that look and sound similar. We often get to lie and to lay mixed up with each other because the past form of the verb to lie is 'lay' which is the same as the base form of the verb to lay.

          To lie means to put your body in a flat or a resting position. The past form (Verb 2) is lay and past participle (Verb 3) is lain. It is an intransitive verb. An intransitive verb doesn't need an object.

For example:

Tom usually lies in bed all morning on Sundays.
His body lies on the ground next to his wife.
He lay on the grass enjoying the sunshine. (past tense)
The book lay open on her table.
Julia has lain in bed all day. (present perfect tense)

To lay means to put. The past form is laid; and the past participle, laid. To lay is a transitive verb. It needs an object. You need to lay something.

For example:

She lays his book on the table.
He laid his hand on my shoulder. (past tense)
They have just laid the carpet on the floor. (present perfect)

Another verb that makes this pair even more confusing (or is it confused?) is to lie. To lie means not to tell the truth. The past form is lied and the past participle is lied. It is an intransitive verb.

For example:

Women above the age of 25 start to lie about their age.
Everyone has to lie sometimes. Some of the lies are called white lies because we lie in order not to hurt other people's feelings.
Bob lied to the police about his car.

Exercise: Lie/ lie/ lay

Directions: Choose the correct verbs to fill in the sentences. Make sure that you use the right tenses.