I think these have evolved from story tips to straight up grammar tips, but hey! Can't sail a ship if its sails are all jacked up!

All that to say it's been almost a month since the last time I did one of these, so I picked an overly complex and confusing subject so we can all cry about ourselves and look back on the times we've messed this up in our own work (i.e. my last #writeclub story).

Since I do the Write or Wrong posts, I'm going to for-go the Write Club section of this post and jump straight to grammar!

Lay, Lie, Lay, or Laid. Or Lain.

Okay so there are a lot of these, but I'll try to make this as simple as possible. I've Googled the heck out of this and, ultimately, I think I've nailed the easiest way to tell y'all how it goes.

Note: We are not talking about lying (or to lie) as in to tell a mistruth, we're discussing lying down (to rest or recline), or laying something down (like, a book or something).

To Lie

Present Tense: To Lie

Alright, this ones easy. It's always lie (or a minute derivative of it).

Like so:

I lie on the floor at Taco Bell.

You lie in your friend's bathtub, playing with his rubber ducky.

He/she/it lies in the grass, talking about stars or something.

We lie around, waiting on steam rollers.

They lie on the sky, and we're all like "Woah. How though?"

Pretty easy, huh? Now let's go Back. To the Future!! (Just the past actually though. Sorry.)

Past Preterit: To Lie

The preterit tense describes an action that happened once in the past (in simplest terms). And this one's easy to conjugate too! It's just lay for all the forms!

I lay in the brown grass. Shame, shame on my brown (expletive). (kinda Childish Gambino quote?)

You lay in the floorboard, picking your nose so the neighbors wouldn't see.

He/she/it lay in the sun, kinda like a caterpillar does I think.

We lay in the Taco Bell floor. We are gaining new followers.

They lay in bed, discussing their plans for the next day.

My brain's on fire, but I can do this! I must! For science!

Present and Past Participles: To Lie

Okay, so the Present Participle for lie is lying.

Example: We are lying around, waiting for tomorrow.

The Past Participle is lain.

Example: We had lain around, waiting for today.

I know, participles are gross (it even sounds gross. P-a-r-t-i-c-i-p-l-e. shudders) but we must know!

To Lay

Present Tense: To Lay

This one goes either lay or lays (yes, like the potato chips) for the he/she/it form.

Examples!!

I lay my phone in the road like a dummy. If you wanna be a jerk, say I lay me down. (This works because me is the second subject. I know, eww.)

You lay your bookbag in the floor before class.

He/she/it lays some Lays on your desk.

We lay down the law around here boiii.

They lay some seasoning to that chicken.

So, this word is for a subject laying another subject down, rather than the verb lie, which is rest and only has the one subject.

Past Preterit: To Lay

It's just laid. Stop smirking! Ugh, you're a bunch of children.

Like this:

I laid some tempeh out to make dinner.

You laid a burrito on my sandwich.

He/she/it laid he/she/its hand on the Bible and said "I swear I'm not a he/she/it!"

We laid our guns on the ground and walked away.

They laid flowers on his grave and then danced about with insurance money in their pockets.

So, you have to have something you are laying down for this to make sense.

Present and Past Participles: To Lay

The Present Participle for to lay is laying.

So: We are laying our burritos on the ground as sacrifice to the mole people.

The Past Participle is laid. (Still).

Like this: He had laid down his book for five seconds before a bird snatched it off the ground, soaring into the air.

What Else is There, Caleb?

Oh, there are so many, but I'm lazy and tired of typing and, for fiction, these are the main types we use. I'll leave some additional resources you can check out for further learning. I'd leave you a chart, but none of the ones on line cover past preterit, so yeah.

This site and this site helped me and this one helped me more I think. I went through nearly a dozen of them just to get all the info I needed.

English is hard! Getting help is easy.

~

I love you guys, thanks for reading! I hope this helped. And I don't expect you to read this all in one sitting and be changed but it'll always be on my blog and you can use it as a reference tool for when you sit down to do your thing (writing, of course. duh.)

God bless and good luck!!