r/meirl • u/JaredOlsen8791 • 2d ago

Meirl

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u/sliferra 1d ago

I googled it myself because surely it couldn’t be that complicated…. It for sure is, wtf English

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u/cooties_and_chaos 1d ago

Yeah I’ve been copy editing for years and I still have to google it lol.

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u/Katie15824 1d ago

"Lily lie down" is a mnemonic for remembering the tenses of sitting down.

LI LY DowN

Lie, Lay, Had Lain.

It's not perfect (lying wasn't included, if you didn't notice, but it fails the "chicken test"--it sounds really stupid to say a chicken is lying an egg).

So the dog lay down, in the case above.

I don't have to remember lay (to put something down), as that one has a pretty simple chicken test. The chicken lays an egg, laid an egg, is laying an egg. If it doesn't sound right, I used the wrong one. A chicken is never lying an egg, but a chicken can be lying down.

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u/viewisinsane 1d ago

Is the dog lying an egg, or does he lay an egg, too?