curious J
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:06 am
Post subject: lie |
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I'm confused about the word, lie.
There's several words like lay, lain, laying, and lied.
Though I've looked up in the dictionary, I don't clearly get the difference
between these words and often get confused.
Please tell me their appropriate usage possibly with some examples.
Thanks.
Curious
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 6:00 pm
Post subject: Re: lie |
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"curious J" <email@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2t13j2F1ori0cU1@uni-berlin.de...
| Quote: | I'm confused about the word, lie.
There's several words like lay, lain, laying, and lied.
Though I've looked up in the dictionary, I don't clearly get the
difference
between these words and often get confused.
|
This is where parsing helps, specifically distinguishing
transitive from transitive usages. They function in
practice as if two different verbs, e.g.
I lie down to sleep
I laid down to sleep
I lay down my arms (meaning I surrender my sword)
I laid down my arms
and so on.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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meirman
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:59 am
Post subject: Re: lie |
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+In alt.english.usage on Tue, 12 Oct 2004 08:00:12 -0400 "Don
Phillipson" <d.phillipson@ttrryytteell.com> posted:
| Quote: | "curious J" <email@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2t13j2F1ori0cU1@uni-berlin.de...
I'm confused about the word, lie.
There's several words like lay, lain, laying, and lied.
Though I've looked up in the dictionary, I don't clearly get the
difference
between these words and often get confused.
|
Lie (meaning to position oneself horizontally, for example on a bed)
has the 3 principal parts, lie, lay, lain, plus lying
Lay (meaning to place something on top of something else) has the 3
principle parts, lay, laid, laid, plus laying
Lie (meaning to intentionally tell a falsehood) has the 3 principle
parts, lie, lied, lied, plus lying.
You have to memorize the principal parts of the many irregular verbs.
Nothing else will do. Get a list and memorize them.
| Quote: | This is where parsing helps, specifically distinguishing
transitive from transitive usages. They function in
practice as if two different verbs, e.g.
I lie down to sleep
I laid down to sleep
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Hmmm. I lay down to sleep. I have lain down. :)
| Quote: | I lay down my arms (meaning I surrender my sword)
I laid down my arms
and so on.
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s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
now in Baltimore 20 years
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