I am going to lay down - or should I lie down?

Just a quickie:

Lay = to put down

lie = to recline (and to fib of course)

The confusion sprouts from the past tense of lie being lay and also because you can "lay yourself down" in order to "lie" somewhere.

IMO, the answer to your question is "lie down". But you can "lay the baby down on his bed" or "lay myself down".

An easy way to differentiate them is:

lay = put
lie = recline

ay yi yi
always a worry, but

from my vestigial memory

You lay your purse down on the sofa.

You lie down on the sofa yourself.

In the past, you laid your purse down

and you personally lay down.

Let's see, I think you had laid your purse there,

and you yourself had lain at the edge of the curb.

Having laid your purse down at last, you ran towards the
grocer's to lay some coins on the counter. Lying on the counter were some red pencils, which had been laid there by the irritating redhead.

I think.

Well, Roberta will fix it, eh?

Ah, one of my pet peeves - but I thought it so common in American English to say LAY for LIE that it had actually become the correct one. I can't bring myself to say I'm going to lay down - unless it's I'm going to lay down the law!

How do you Americans (and others) feel about disinterested?

I think that a lot of people confuse DISinterested with UNinterested. Years ago, I had seen something in a newspaper, where they had used the word disinterested, and I thought it meant uninterested. I made a big fuss about it, when a more grammatically astute friend showed me where I was all wet. I don't make that mistake anymore!

Good, I feel that disinterested is a really useful word in its old and original sense - we need disinterested judges but not uninterested ones!

interesting

Not uninteresting, I hope

Thanks all - that has sorted me out.

You can lay perfectly fine on a sofa, and also in the back of a Dodge Durango.

But you should not lay with your pets, nor sport with them.

Nor go a-pricking upon the plains with them either, unless of course you need them to hunt foxes.