16 Mar A Grammar Blog–“lie” and “lay”

The Toronto Star had a news article this week about a man who was hit by a car.  One sentence reads:

“Those who ran to their windows and out into their front yards said they saw a bloodied man laying in a driveway at the edge of the street…..”

In this sentence, laying should be lying.  The simple present of lying is lie, which is an intransitive verb.  This means that it does not take an object: that is, a person or thing doesn’t lie something.  It simply lies:  A person lies on the ground, or lies on the bed.

The verb lay, however, is transitive.  This means that it takes an object: a person lays something.  Perhaps you lay the plates on the table, or you lay the baby in the crib.

The confusion probably comes from the fact that lay is also the simple past of lie.  So a person lies on the ground right now and also lay there an hour ago.