A Word, Please: Be careful if you choose to ‘lay down’

It was a long, nasty battle, riddled with insults, personal attacks and even name-calling. But at last, a winner has been declared. The victor pulled off a major upset simply by being simple. And this no-thinking-required appeal won millions of supporters and ultimately trumped what more informed observers have long perceived as a serious credibility problem.

I’m speaking, of course, about the triumph of “lay” over “lie” as an intransitive verb.

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(You didn’t think I was commenting on something else, did you? Heaven forfend.)

“I feel that a tipping point has been reached,” writes English professor and author Ben Yagoda on the Lingua Franca blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education website. As an intransitive verb, he writes, “lay” has overtaken “lie.”

Historically, “lay” has been a transitive verb and “lie” its intransitive counterpart. Transitive verbs take objects -— a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb. The action is done to something or someone. “Catch” is a good example of a transitive verb. You catch something. “Joe catches the ball.” “Mary caught a cold.”

Intransitive verbs take no object. “Fall” is a good example. “Joe falls.” “Mary fell.”

Many verbs can be both transitive and intransitive. You can walk the dog, or you can just walk. You can write a novel, or you can just write. You can cook dinner, or you can just cook.

But traditionally, “lie” has been the intransitive verb meaning to recline. “Lay,” on the other hand, means to set something down. That “something” is the object. You lie on the bed, but you lay the blanket on top of it first. Hence, “lay” is transitive.

It’s easy — until you get to the past tense. See, here’s the thing: The simple past form of “lie” just happens to be “lay.” As if that’s not confusing enough, its past participle is “lain.” Recall that the past participle is the one that works with “have.” So today, I lie; yesterday, I lay; in the past, I have lain.

The transitive verb “lay” has the advantage of being much simpler. Both its past tense and past participle forms are “laid.” Today, I lay the book on the table; yesterday, I laid the book on the table; in the past, I have laid the book on the table.

If you’d like a professional copy editor’s advice on how to remember all this, here it is: Don’t bother. When you need to put one of these verbs in a past tense, just look up the main verb in the dictionary and next to it you’ll see either “lay, lain” or “laid.”

The dictionary lists the simple past form first, followed by the past participle if the two are different. So the answer is always at your fingertips, no memorization required.

But if Yagoda’s our guide, you no longer need to worry about any of this because “lay” has triumphed over “lie” as the intransitive verb of choice. So is Yagoda right?

Anyone with ears knows that English speakers are more likely to opt for “lay” in intransitive uses like: “I’m tired. I want to lay down.” And this is how correctness in language originates: through popular usage. So yes, Yagoda has given us a peek into the future. But what if right now, in the present, you need to write in a way that earns you maximum credibility? What if your reader is a proper type, and you care what he thinks? What should you do?

You have to pick whose lead you want to follow. You can wait till someone accuses you of an error and then say, “Yagoda allows it.” But your readers might give more credence to the dictionary. Though dictionaries are surely on the way to sanctioning “lay” as an intransitive verb, they’re not there yet. Merriam-Webster’s, for example, says that using “lay” to mean “lie” is still “nonstandard.”

And if you’re troubled that this language trend represents a slow, steady slide emblematic of the dumbing down of America, I suggest you turn your energies toward other recent headlines.

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JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of “The Best Punctuation Book, Period.” She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.