I have a question.
Sep 09th 2011 11:34
english
meaning
difference
word
verb
Here is an English problem on a workbook.
I found my dog ( ) under the tree in our yard.
①lay ②laying ③lie ④lying
The correct answer is ④ and I agree to it. However, a student wondered why ① is wrong. He thinks "I found (that) my dog lay under the tree in our yard." could be an answer.
I feel "I found my dog lay under the tree in our yard" is odd, but I cannot explain why myself.
What do you think?
I found my dog ( ) under the tree in our yard.
①lay ②laying ③lie ④lying
The correct answer is ④ and I agree to it. However, a student wondered why ① is wrong. He thinks "I found (that) my dog lay under the tree in our yard." could be an answer.
I feel "I found my dog lay under the tree in our yard" is odd, but I cannot explain why myself.
What do you think?
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The bricklayers were laying bricks to form the walls of the house.
The bricklayers are laying bricks to form the walls of the house.
The bricklayers will be laying bricks from 9:00 AM to noon tomorrow.
Note that in all of these sentences, "lay" is a transitive verb with direct object "bricks." The confusion arises because the past tense of the intransitive verb "to lie" is also "lay."
I'm starting to remember what a pain irregular verbs are.
Thank you for your comment. :) To tell the truth, I didn't notice "lay" is the past tense of "lie" until the student pointed out. :P
横にする: lay - laid - laid - laying
横になる: lie - lay - lain - lying
I should not forget these conjugations. ;)
横になる is a perfect translation for lying down for rest.
But I'm not sure what the best Japanese word is for the act of laying something else down. I see words such as "据える", and "布設" that in some sentences would also translate to "lay/laid/laying".
I hope I'm not making things more confusing ^^;
lay the books on the table 本をテーブルの上に置く
lay the patient carefully onto the bed 患者をベッドの上に注意深く寝かせる
lay a carpet on a floor カーペットを床の上に敷く
lay tracks for the new railroad 新しい鉄道用の線路を敷く
lay pipe/cable/lines パイプ(ケーブル、配線）を引く
Probably other English words could be used instead of "lay". ;)
Looks like you taught ME something :P
Here is an English problem in a workbook. [Text is always in a book or magazine; a scene is always in a play or a movie. Using "on" instead of "in" in these cases is an error many nihonjin make; I wish I understood why. Is the correct particle in the corresponding Japanese sentence で?]
"I found that my dog lies under the tree in our yard" is possible; this means that the dog lies there habitually (repeatedly), and the speaker of the sentence has just discovered or realized that the dog has this habit.
In the sentence "I found that my dog lay under the tree in our yard" is only grammatically correct if "lay" is taken as the past tense of "lie." It is far less natural than "I found that my dog (was) lying under the tree in our yard" if it is meant to describe a single event in the past. This is because "(was) lying" describes the state of the dog when "I" found the dog. If, instead, I watched the dog go from a standing position to a lying position, I would not use the verb "found." "I saw the dog lie down under the tree in our yard."
"The dog lay under the tree in our yard every evening last summer" is correct, as is "The dog lay under the tree in our yard yesterday evening." The verbs "lie" and "lay" are so confusing that even a native English speaker often feels hesitant about using "lay" this way, though.
Since "found" is the main verb of the sentence, the missing word must describe the dog somehow. Since there is no word like "that" or "which" in the sentence, the only way a verb can describe "dog" is by being a participle, so "lying" and "laying" are the only possible choices. "Laying" is not possible because there is no direct object. ("I found my chicken laying an egg under the tree in the back yard" is correct. :-) ). One can sneak in the words "lie" or "lay" only by inserting "that" after "found," or inserting "that", "which" or "who" after "dog." While it is true that an implied "that" after "found" could be omitted, it is a rather far-fetched choice to complete the sentence.
"I found (that) my dog lies/lay under the tree in our yard."
Note that "lie" is still not possible even with this strained interpretation of the sentence; it would have to be "lies" to agree with the third person singular subject "dog."
Forgive me for having beaten this to death; I hope some of what I said was useful.
I found my dog tied to the tree.
この本の３ページのパズルが解けない。
I can't solve the puzzle on page 3 in this book.
We tend to use の for a book and a page, that's why Japanese people often make a such mistake.
In summary, "lay" could be an answer, even though it is far less natural than "lying" for the problem. If there is another possible answer in the choices, do you think it is a good exercise for students? To be honest, I don't like a tricky problem. However, he gave me a good opportunity to review the verb conjugations and English grammar. :)
It is still true that "lying" is a much better answer than "lay"-- the sentence using "lying" is far more likely to be said than the sentence using "lay." One has to invent an omitted "that" and an unusual context for the sentence with "lay" to be a possible utterance.
In real uses of language, there is always a context in which a sentence is spoken or written, and the context often rules out unlikely sentences like this one using "lay." Another thing that happens when a sentence is presented out of context is that it often has ambiguities which are never a problem in practice. This too comes up in multiple choice questions which ask you to find a sentence whose meaning matches the meaning of a given sentence.