Would I Lie?

Yes, I know the “Lie-Lay” Train has left the station without me on it, but two recent misuses of these verbs were so egregious that I cannot forbear making a last-ditch effort. The cases in point:

1. The Houston Chronicle, the backbone of the Hearst newspaper empire, reported that the “body of Mrs. Bush will lay in state at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church.”

2. A few days later, a CNN on-line item related that the passengers on a Southwest Airlines plane, trying to rescue a woman sucked through a window when an engine blew out, “grabbed her and lay her on the floor.”

Those two usages, mirror opposites of each other in their wrongness, sound so painfully offensive to the ear that it’s difficult to imagine anyone, let alone a professional writer of the English language, thinking they were right. O, copy editors, where art thou?

One more time, allow me to point out:

In the present (or future) tense, lie means to “repose or recline, to be prone or supine.” (There’s a little mnemonic rhyme.) It also means simply to “be situated.” Mrs. Bush’s body will lie in state.

The past tense of lie is lay. Mrs. Bush’s body lay in state last week.

The past participle of lie is lain. Many important people have lain in state before they were buried.

OK, now then: lay in the present (or future) tense is an entirely different word. It means to “put or to place something.” The key here is “something.” Lay in the present (or future) tense requires an object. The rescuers are going to lay the woman on the floor.

The past tense of lay is laid. The passengers laid the woman on the floor.

The past participle of lay is also laid. The rescuers have laid the woman on the floor and are now back in their seats.

Of course, everyone knows—I pray I am correct—that lie, meaning to “tell an untruth,” comes from an entirely different root and has nothing to do with the words we are discussing. (This lie's past and past participle is lied.)

‘Nough said?

The Bard of Buffalo Bayou thinks he never says enough, and so he relentlessly offers this verse, which will be of no help whatsoever in remembering whether to use lie, lay, or laid.

            I was laid up, so I lay down           

            To lie low while I was sick.

            My boss rang up to lay me off,

            And I laid it on quite thick.

           

            But still my boss laid into me--

            That made me worse, no doubt.

            Now on my tomb, engraved, you’ll see:

            “Laid up, laid low, laid off, laid out.”