 Confusing English words. Difference between lay and lie. Both of these words refer to the action of putting something down on a surface, or an object, person, or animal resting on a surface. However, lay has a direct object, and lie does not. A direct object is the thing that receives the action of the verb. So when you put your own body horizontally on the bed or sofa, you lie down. There's no direct object. But when you put a book on the table, you lay the book down. Book is the direct object. Here's another example. You can say that the cat is lying on the piano. There's no direct object for the verb lie. But if you are putting various photos onto a table, you would be laying the photos on the table. Photos are the direct object. Even native English speakers often mix these up. Many people say, I'm not feeling well. I need to lay down. When the correct sentence would be, I need to lie down. A person or animal lies themselves down, but you lay another object down. Now here's the confusing part. The past tense of lie is lay. It's lie in the present, lay in the past, and the past participle is lane. For the verb lay, it's lay in the present, laid in the past, and the past participle is also laid. So let's look at two sentences in the past. Here's one with the verb lie in the past. Last night I wasn't feeling well, so I lay down for an hour. Remember, that's lay being the past tense of lie. Now here's one with the verb lay in the past. I laid the book down when the phone rang. The past tense of lay is laid. The other confusing part is that the verb lie has two forms and two meanings. We have lie meaning to be resting on a surface, like the cat is lying on the piano. And we have lie meaning to say something false, say something that is not true. For example, he said he got a good grade, but he's lying. He actually failed the test. These two forms of the verb lie have different forms in the past and past participle. For lie meaning something resting on a surface, the past is lay and the past participle is lane. But for lie meaning to say something that isn't true, the past is lied and the past participle is also lied. So in the past we would say, the cat lay on the piano for three hours last night. David lied about his final test grade last semester. If you want to clear up your doubt so that you can use English words more confidently without mistakes, check out my e-book, 600 plus Confusing English Words Explained.