Lie or Lay … Which to Use
I’m a “stickler” for using the right (write!) word. I don’t like long fancy words, I like the shorter ones, the words that no one will scratch their heads over.
Sometimes long fancy words are the only ones that can be used, but I always worry that a reader won’t know what the word means and then … suddenly the reader is someplace else but, most certainly, not reading my story!
Someone once told me (or maybe I read it someplace), never use a “quarter” word when a “nickel” word will do!
Which brings us to the use of LIE or LAY. Both are nice nickel words. But, I admit, I always get them confused. When folks read my stuff, I’m forever hearing, “it’s lie not lay” or “it’s lay not lie”.
So, I googled “lie or lay” and found a bunch of web-sites that explained the difference.
Basically, use LIE if something is going “to be at rest in a horizontal position”. Use LAY if one is going to “set or place something down”. If you want more information, click on my google-search above!
Okay, get to work. Happy writing! Enjoy your week-end.
