The difference between the verbs to lie and to lay

Idiomas

13/08/2015

I have been asked many times teaching the conversation classes ‘going places’ (the beach ‘to lie on the beach’); teacher! Doesn’t ‘to lie’ mean ‘mentir’? and yes lie can mean ‘mentir’ but is also can mean ‘deitar-se’ so I thought about doing an article about the difference of lie (mentir and deitar-se) and lay (pôr, colocar)  

Lie means deitar-se (to recline – recliner-se) or mentir and the verb lay (to place or put down - para colocar ou deixar de lado) means pôr, colocar.

Lie (mentir) -> simple past lied -> past participle lied

Lie (deitar-se) –> simple past lay -> past participle lain

Lay (pôr, colocar) -> simple past laid -> past participle laid

Some examples;

• She was lying on the bed watching television. (Ela estava deitada na cama assistindo televisão.)
• It’s obvious that she is lying. (Está na cara que ela está mentindo.)
• We lay flowers on her grave once a week. (Nós colocamos flores no túmulo dela uma vez por semana.)

Lie has two forms one is regular (mentir) and the other irrugular (deitar-se).

• lie com o sentido de mentir é regular: no past simple e no past participle ele será sempre lied.
• lie com o sentido de deitar-se é irregular: no past simple ele será lay e no past participle será lain (essa forma é bem rara de ser encontrada por aí)

Some examples;

• He lied to us. (Ele mentiu para nós.)
• He lay down and closed his eyes. (Ele se deitou na cama e fechou os olhos.)
• For a few minutes she just lay there. (Por alguns instantes ela só ficou deitada lá.)

The verb lay (pôr, colocar) always asks for a supplement. That is, it should always be followed by an object: lay something somewhere, lay something / someone on something.

• They’ll lay the carpet next week. (Eles vão colocar o carpete na semana que vem.)
• They laid a wreath at the place where so many people died. (Eles colocaram uma coroa de flores no local onde inúmeras pessoas morreram.)
• I swear I didn’t lay a finger on him. (Juro que não encostei um dedo nele.)
• Lay the tools on the workbench. (Coloque as ferramentas na bancada.)
• Let’s lay a plan to make the police think we have disappeared. (Vamos bolar um plano para a polícia pensar que nós sumimos.)

I hope this helps you to use these verbs correctly.