tedboone |
A question for the Grammar Gurus |
    49,089 / 50,000 Municipal Liaison
Joined: Okt 28, 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS Posts: 406
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2009 - 18 30 |
I'm usually pretty good at grammar, but this one has me scratching my head: She tried to push herself back up, failed, and instead laid on the ground gasping in the frigid air. or She tried to push herself back up, failed, and instead lay on the ground gasping in the frigid air. Word's grammar check is throwing a hissy fit, telling me to switch back and forth from one to the other, incessantly. No help there. So, whaddya think? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance! |
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31,389 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 18 48
She tried to push herself back up, failed, and instead lay on the ground gasping in the frigid
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I'm 99% it's that one. I always have the same problem deciding.
----------49,089 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 18 55
She tried to push herself back up, failed, and instead lay on the ground gasping in the frigid
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I'm 99% it's that one. I always have the same problem deciding.
That's what my gut tells me as well. I should know better than to allow a computer program to induce doubt in my grammar instincts.
Thanks!
78,343 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 19 22
This is one of those grammar things that always gets me, too, but I know for certain the first one is wrong. In the present tense, you lay objects down, but you, a person, lie down. The past participle of lie is lay. So, "She tried to pus herself back up, failed, and instead lay on the ground gasping," is correct, I believe.
----------~Erin
New York City Municipal Liaison
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31,036 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 20 27
I always learned "things don't lie to you, people do" as a grammar trick (things lay, people lie). So lay would be correct there. I know there's exception to the rule, but still.
50,081 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 03 55
Honestly, lay vs. lie gets a bad rap. People remember that there's something confusing about it, and so they let the rules for it go completely out of their heads. I did too! It took being an adult with way too much Grammar Nazi-ing in my past for me to look it up, blink, and go "But that's easy." And I STILL get it wrong!
The reason it's confusing is for one reason only: they share a word. Just one. Only one.
The past tense of "to lie" is "lay", and that's enough to derail the entire English-speaking world.
"To Lie" is what you do, "to lay" is what you do to other things. The fancier way of saying it is that "lay" requires a direct object, and "lie" does not.
You lie on the bed right now, yesterday your cats lay on the clean laundry, they had lain there for several weeks now.
You lay the book on the table, your dog laid the dead duck at your feet yesterday, he had laid ducks at your father's feet before.
Or, as Grammar Girl puts it, you can remember because Eric Clapton got it wrong. "Lay Down Sally" is incorrect. It should be "Lie Down Sally", unless he's instructing someone else on what they should do to Sally.
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