Lie down means to put your body flat on a bed, a sofa or the grass, usually to rest: I need to lie down.
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lie down (on + bed/sofa/grass); lie down for + time; lay down (past)
- I've got a headache, so I'm going to lie down for half an hour.
- The doctor asked me to lie down on the bed and relax.
- After the long hike, we lay down on the grass and watched the clouds.
What changed
First versionYesterday I lied down after lunch and slept for an hour.
RevisionYesterday I lay down after lunch and slept for an hour.
Lie, in the sense of resting flat, has irregular forms: lie, lay, lain. Lied is the past tense of a different lie, “say something untrue”. So I lied down sounds like “I told a lie” with a puzzling down attached. The correct form is I lay down.
Lay down isn't about lying down; it means to put someone or something down: Lay the baby down gently. She laid down her bags. The confusion grows because lay is also the past tense of lie: Yesterday I lay down. In British English there's also a noun: have a lie-down, to lie down for a short while.
Your turn
I felt dizzy at work, so I ___ on the sofa in the staff room for twenty minutes.
Show the answer
lay down — The person lay down themselves, and it happened in the past: lie down → lay down. Lied is the past tense of lie meaning “say something untrue”, and it doesn't go with down.
Describe a day when you had to lie down in the middle of the day. Give the reason and say how long you stayed there.
Last Sunday I had a terrible headache, so I lay down in my bedroom for about an hour.
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