Mon, 22 Sep 2025 16:50:47 EDT
Laid Versus Lain
Laid is the past tense, the past participle, and the past perfect of lay, which is transitive: The hen (has/had) laid an egg. The laid egg sat there unnoticed.
Lain is the past perfect of lie, which is intransitive: The hen has/had lain there for some time. There functions as a locative adverb.
Confusion results from lay also being the past tense of lie: The hen lay there for some time.
We usually use the progressive instead of lain as participle: The lying hen clucked. Context establishes the sense of lying that we intend.
A laying hen, progressive form, is in the act of laying an egg. A laying hen, participle form, is a hen that is in the phase of its lifecycle in which the hen lays eggs.
The following sentence occurs in the novel Villette by Charlotte Brontë. “I saw myself laid, not in bed, but on a sofa.” Laid in the sentence functions as a participle that modifies myself. The transitive form implies that someone laid the narrator on a sofa. Lying also works in the sentence: “I saw myself lying, not in bed, but on a sofa.” The intransitive form describes the act of lying and makes no comment on the actor who laid the narrator on the sofa. Laying does not work. “I saw myself laying…” means that the narrator is laying an object on the sofa.
A full description of the verbs lies here.