Tricky Verbs

[Jessica]

Here is a chart of tricky verbs, irregular in different tenses.

irregular verbs.png (47.13 KiB) Viewed 3933 times

One notoriously annoying trick is the difference between “lie” and “lay” and all their variations. Here are the rules:

LIE: to recline or to disguise the truth
RIGHT: We lie down on the hammocks when we want to relax.
I lie to my mother about eating the cookies.
LAY: to place
RIGHT: Just lay down that air hockey table over there.
I lay the book on the table.

The tricky part is that the past tense of “lie” is “lay.”

She lay down yesterday, and today she’ll lie down again.

The past tense of “lay” is “laid.”

She laid down the law with an iron fist.