20230905 動詞 Lie 與 Lay 的用法 (85)

動詞 Lie 與 Lay 的用法
Lie vs. Lay
The verbs "lie" and "lay" are often confused; let's clear that once and for all.
First of all, "lie" has many meanings, three of which are as follows: 1. When used as "deception or saying things that are untrue", it is an intransitive verb, its forms and present participle are "lie-lied-lied-lying";
2. When used as "being in or moving into a horizontal position on a surface", it is an intransitive verb, its forms and present participle are "lie-lay-lain-lying";
3. When used to refer to "being situated or located at a place", its an intransitive verb, its forms and present participle are "lie-lay-lain-lying". On the other hand, "lay" as a verb is transitive, meaning "to put something in especially a flat or horizontal position", its forms and present participle are "lay-laid-laid-laying". Therefore, when we say "I lay in bed", the "lay" here is intransitive, so we can determine it to be the past tense of "lie". However, if we look at "He laid the tray down on the table.", with "laid" being transitive, it is the past tense of "lay".

英文中 lie 與 lay 經常被搞混，這堂課一次釐清。首先 lie 可以有多種意思，這裡介紹三種。
1. 作為「欺騙、說謊」時，是不及物動詞，三態與現在分詞分別為 lie-lied-lied-lying。
2. 作為「平躺、平臥」，是不及物動詞，三態與現在分詞分別為 lie-lay-lain-lying。
3. 作為「處於、位於」，也是不及物動詞，三態與現在分詞分別為 lie-lay-lain-lying。
另一方面，lay 作為原形動詞，是「及物動詞」，意思是「放置，安放，平放」某物品的意思，三態與現在分詞分別則為 lay-laid-laid-laying。

因此，當我們說 I lay in bed. 這裏 lay 是不及物動詞，因此基本上已經可以判定是 lie 的過去式：反觀 He laid the tray down on the table. 此處 laid 為及物動詞，則是 lay 的過去式。

例句
The river lies 30 km to the south.

那條河在南方 30 公里處。

A pen lay on the desk.

桌子上放著一枝鉛筆。

She laid aside her book and went to answer the phone.

她把書放在一邊去接電話