Lie and lay. They’re the grammar stickler’s equivalent of a secret handshake. Use these words just so and you’re signaling to like-minded language lovers: I’m in, a member of the club, part of the ...

Of the various forms of the vexing verbs “lay” and “lie,” the rarest is “lain.” So I was particularly disheartened to see this recently in the first third of a 64-word sentence: “much of the forest ...

Lay means to place something down, while lie means to recline. The confusion often comes from their past tense forms, but understanding their distinct meanings and usage can help avoid ...

Last week we talked about how to look up past participles in your dictionary. Here's a condensed lesson: For any irregular verb, the past tense and past participle are listed right after the entry ...