QUESTION: I am always confused as to the usage of the words 'lay' and 'lie'. Isn't lay the past tense of lie, and yet I have seen it used in the present tense? TERENCE, Sha Tin ANSWER: The verbs to lie and lay are often confused, even by native-speakers of English. You are right in saying that lay is the past tense of the intransitive verb, to lie, as in the example 'Tom got sunburnt because he lay on the beach for three hours' and 'The wounded soldier lay on the battlefield for five hours'.
In the present tense, we could say 'Tom often lies on Repulse Bay Beach for hours in summer'. The past participle of lie is lain as in the example 'Jack has lain in bed for three weeks now'.
However, the past tense of the transitive verb to lay (to 'place' or 'put') is laid, for example, 'The teacher laid the book on the table'.
The past participle of to lay is also laid, for example, 'Has Mary laid the table yet?'. Be aware of the verb to lie (to say something that is not true), which is often followed by the preposition about, for example, 'Bill lied about his age in order to join the army'.
Q: When do I use 'compared to' and 'compared with'? And what's the difference between the two phrases? ANGELA, Hong Kong A: In modern English, the verb to compare can be followed by either with or to, for example, 'Hong Kong is small compared to/with Tokyo'. However, it is more common to use with when we speak of a long detailed study, as in the example 'Professor Jones wrote an essay that compared the human brain with that of a monkey'.
When we want to say that something is worthy of being compared with something else, we must use with , for example, 'Travelling by bus can't compare with travelling by a jet aeroplane'.