Friday, November 29, 2013

*ACTIVE vs. PASSIVE*

Write two sentences using the word lay.

In the first sentence, use the verb in the active voice; in the second sentence use it in the passive voice.

6 comments:

Sarahba50 (155) said...

1. This goose can lay a golden egg!

2. A golden egg will be laid by the goose.

AlexandraD said...

active:
Lay down your sword!

passive:

He laid down his sword.

OR

He lay down to sleep late last night. ('Lay' as past tense of 'lie')

Unknown said...

1) After a long day at work, I laid down and fell asleep.

2) The rules were laid down to discipline a group of misbehaving children.

Yosua ENGL155 said...

Active

My sister laid her books on the table.

Pasive

My sister books were lay on the table by her.

Michael said...

Good answer, Sarah.

Alexandra, you have confused the passive voice for the past tense.

Yousa, you have confused the past participle.

Victoria, you have confused the past tense of the intransitive "lie" with the transitive "lay".

Admittedly, this is a rather picky grammatical rule that ignores how many people actually speak.

The past tense of "lie" is "lay." The past tense of "lay" is "laid."

So, yesterday, you lay down and fell asleep.

To remember this, think of the old prayer ("Now I lay me down to sleep..."). Lay is transitive, so the object ("me") has been added. Otherwise it would have to be something like "Now I lie down to sleep".

Here's a link that might help:

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/lay-vs-lie


AlexandraD said...
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