Lie or lay?
You lie down yourself; you lay something down.
- lie
- I need to lie down for an hour.
- lay
- Lay the baby gently in her cot.
To rememberThe verb lay (put) always needs a thing: lay the table, lay an egg.
Formslie (rest) · lay · lain / lay · laid · laid
NotYesterday I laid on the beach.
SayYesterday I lay on the beach.
WhyThe past of lie is lay: lie, lay, lain.
“Lay down” for “lie down” is common in casual speech, mostly American, but it is marked wrong in careful writing.