Comments on: Just Lying There

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:44:49 +0000

Strunk and White, my friend.

Which I absolutely do not often carry around and would never consider involving in a sex act. Never. (And I was only an English major for about a month. Imagine if I had done it for longer.)

By: etre

etre — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:46:50 +0000

I heart your attention to detail, even for a three-liner post :)

By: MichaelG

MichaelG — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:01:32 +0000

It’s “lying”. Randy and MrP are correct.

By: nitebyrd

nitebyrd — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:43:21 +0000

Lying, laying – who cares as long as you had a good time?

By: Slow Learner

Slow Learner — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:10:57 +0000

Another way of looking at it is that laying is active and lying is passive, i.e. your usage was correct.

But, confusingly, it sounds as if you were far from passive while you were lying and he was laying you ;o)

By: aw

aw — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:36:28 +0000

Laying Lying, Fucking Screwing, who cares anyway.

As they always say – “Alls fun in lube and toys”

By: janeway

janeway — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:20:03 +0000

Why’d you ask? I’ve never yet seen you use them incorrectly – unlike many otherwise literate bloggers, including those who consider themselves writers.

By: misterprecedent

misterprecedent — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:27:32 +0000

LYING is correct here, although, technically, given the subject matter, LAYING sorta works, too (since he was somewhat on the receiving end). ;-)

LAY (lay, laid, laid, laying*) is transitive and needs a direct object – you do it TO something (or someone). You LAY an egg or a plate or a blanket. Memory tricks: if you can do it to an Apple, there’s an “A”; OTHERS ‘get’ LAID

LIE (lie, lay, lain, lying*) – meaning “to recline” – is intransitive – you do it WITH YOURSELF. You LIE down. Memory rhyme/tricks: “I LIE/LY”(present) – unless I did it Yesterday, in which case, I laY (past)

If you’re currently reclining on the blanket, you’re LYING there. If you’re putting the blanket on the bed, you’re LAYING it there. If YOU put yourself on the blanket last week, you LAY there. If HE put you onto the blanket last week, he LAID you there (hopefully!). ;-)

(* tenses: present, past, past participle, present participle)

By: aag

aag — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:54:33 +0000

Yes, well, Google provided inconclusive results on this topic. Trust me, I checked.

:)

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:26:55 +0000

LOL, so 50% of people who use Twitter don’t know how to Google? (Laying is for objects apparently. No, not “sex objects”!)

“I was lying there as he was laying out the toys.”

Thanks for the impromptu “learn something new every day”! (Wait, it’s after midnight, am I good for tomorrow already?)