Comments on: Commonly Misspelled Words: Working with Homophones https://writers.com/commonly-misspelled-words Your voice is a gift. Share it. Sat, 02 Jan 2021 16:58:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Jeanne Voelker https://writers.com/commonly-misspelled-words#comment-545 Sat, 02 Jan 2021 03:36:48 +0000 http://writers.com/?p=8604#comment-545 Lie, by contrast, is intransitive: you cannot “lie” an object down, but you can do the action represented by “lie.”
You’ve written a helpful guide and addressed the errors I see all the time. Excellent, but there is an error here.

I lie on the bed. (This is correct)
The cat laid down on the sofa. (This is INCORRECT)
Trickier, still, are these homophones when used in the past tense.
The past tense of both verbs is “laid,” (This is INCORRECT)
Nonetheless, you just have to figure out which way “laid” is being used. (INCORRECT)
If it’s transitive, then something is receiving the action; if it’s intransitive, then there is no direct object.

The simple past of “to lie” (meaning to recline) is LAY.
PRESENT TENSE: The cat lies on the bed. PAST TENSE: The cat lay on the bed.

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