Leave something laying or lying around?

[sweetnothings]

Error identification: The man tells his kids (1) not to leave toys (2) laying around, someone (3) might trip on them and get (4) badly hurt.

I think 'leave something laying around' and 'leave something lying around' are both correct, so the mistake is the ‘comma’ in front of ‘someone’; it should be a ‘semicolon’. What do you think?

 

[sandpiperlily]

Lying around is correct; laying around is technically incorrect but it's a very common mistake that native speakers make, which is probably why it sounds right to you.

You're also right that this sentence is a comma splice and needs a period or semicolon or a word like "because" before "someone."

 

[sweetnothings]

As far as I know, the rule is ‘You lay something down.’ and ‘Something lies down by itself.’, so I would say that ‘leave something lying around’ is correct; however, I googled “leave something laying around” and “leave something lying around” and found that native speakers use both! This error identification test is created by a Thai teacher, a non-native speaker of English. The question is would you say that the test is crazy because there are ‘two errors’ or the answer given by the Thai teacher is wrong because he or she says the only error is ‘leave something laying around’?

 

[sandpiperlily]

I would not say the test is crazy. To me, the error with the comma is very minor, especially because it is part of what the dad tells his kids -- it would be awkward to interrupt the paraphrase of the Dad's admonishment to his kids with a semicolon or period. And anyway, it looks like that part of the sentence wasn't flagged as an option, so of the 4 options flagged, only one is clearly an error.

Many native speakers do say "laying around" and don't consider it an error, so if you're a pure descriptivist, you could say both are widely considered "correct." However, if you want to be perceived as educated, or if you want to write something that can be published in an edited source like a newspaper or book, then "lying around" is the only correct option and "laying around" is 100% incorrect.

 

[RocketScience]

To lay – transitive verb – (past) 'He laid the book down' / (present) 'He lay the book on the table' / (present participle) 'He was laying tiles all day'
To lie – intransitive verb – (past simple) 'She lay on her bed all day' / (present simple) 'She lies on her bed all day' / (past participle) 'She had lain there all day' / (present participle) 'She spends all day lying around'
To lie – Second meaning - (past) 'You lied to me about who ate the cake' / (present) 'I lie to myself every day'

There's a lot of overlap in forms, especially when you bring the participles into the mix, so it's very difficult to get these right. Natives will often make errors too. And yes, 'laying around' is always wrong in that sense, you could conceivably say 'She was always laying around presents for her sister' but you'd usually alter the word order ('always laying presents around').

 

[Andygc]

See this post by Rover_KE which covers the use of lay and lie pretty thoroughly.

 

[sweetnothings]

Thanks for all the answers. I have no problems with the usage of lay and lie. I just want to know if this test is justifiable, considering that the 'comma' before 'someone' can be substituted with 'because' which looks much better than a 'semicolon'.

 

[Andygc]

sweetnothings, if you give a test question, you need to make it clear what the test is asking. It appears that 'not', 'laying', 'might' and 'badly' are the possible errors. 'Laying' is clearly wrong. So is the comma splice, but it doesn't appear to be offered as a possible error, so it can't be the answer.

 

[sandpiperlily]

sweetnothings, if you give a test question, you need to make it clear what the test is asking. It appears that 'not', 'laying', 'might' and 'badly' are the possible errors. 'Laying' is clearly wrong. So is the comma splice, but it doesn't appear to be offered as a possible error, so it can't be the answer.

Exactly what I was trying to say, but much clearer! Sorry if I caused any confusion above.

 

[sweetnothings]

OK. I understand. Thanks.