A to Z Writing: Laying Low with Language's Lies

Look out! Do you know when to use “lay” and when to use “lie”? This English language quirk has writers in a quandary.

I’d be loathe to lay a guilt trip on you, but if you claim you know the truth about "lie" and "lay," maybe you lie like a rug. Let me lay it out for you. I’d be lying, if I didn’t lay a bet on this one.

Sometimes, I just cannot let sleeping dogs lie, and I’d hate to lay an egg on this grammatical graveyard. It’s too urgent to put on layaway.

I simply could not lay down my work at the end of the day and lie down in peace without setting this aright. The guilt could leave me laid up for weeks, and I can’t take that lying down.

Every writer has to make his own bed and lie in it, at least until he lies in state somewhere.

So, before you lay it on the line or even lay rubber, get the lay of the land on “lay” vs. “lie.”

And that’s no lie. (If it were, someone might need to have his mouth washed out with lye. But that's another story altogether.)

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