"Hunden sitter och katten ligger."

Translation: The dog is sitting and the cat is lying.

[orchid223]

It would be more natural where I'm from to say the cat is lying down. The sentence made me chuckle because it immediately brought to mind a cat that tells lies.

[amateurasu]

They probably would, if they were capable of speech. ;)

[Sarah21189]

Agreed, and reported.

[celigabon]

Why not this: The dog sits and the cat lays??

[amateurasu]

As mentioned in other comments, lay and lie do not mean the same thing. Lie is the correct word here, and lay is not (although saying "lay" when you actually mean "lie" is a common error, even among native English speakers).

[letitiafickling]

But in english lying is modal. You wouldnt say they are lying you would say they are lying down. You could also say the dog sits and the cat lies down

[GaelicGirl2]

The cat lies !!

[chiara2824]

I definitely think "lying down" should be accepted. People don't say just lying when they are talking about body position.

[Super-Svensk]

I agree that "lying down" could work as an accepted response. It sounds much more natural in English than just "lying."

[deactivated user]

Agree with Chiara that lying down should be accepted.
If I say he is lying, what do I actually mean? its hard to tell unless you understand how people tend to use the words in practice (or at least how I've used the words in the UK to distinguish the meaning).
Lying on its own is usually means dishonesty and to indicate position, we usually add more information like how or where someone is lying.
So if you said he is lying, my default interpretation is he is being dishonest. If you say he is lying on the sofa, I know immediately you are talking about him lying down.
Positional use usually adds a "down", "on", "in" i.e. I am lying down, he is lying on the floor, he is lying in bed.
While its clear here that its a positional meaning as cats cant talk, as Chiara says, we just dont say lying when talking about body position because it becomes too confusing on the meaning. We always add a how or why bit to it to distinguish it from the being dishonest meaning so it just sounds very weird to read that!!

[lagolas2010]

I wrote "The dog sits and the cat lays" and It says I'm not correct. The problem must be in the correct form of the verb "to lay"?

[atofelt]

"The dog sits and the cat lays" is not correct English. It should be "The dog sits and the cat lies", but Duo doesn't accept that, either.

[deactivated user]

The problem is that to lie and to lay mean different things. You lay things on a table, you lie on a sofa. The complication, and where a lot of confusion arises even with native English speakers is the past tense of lie is lay.... and probably why it started being used interchangeably with lie at some point. For example, I lie on the sofa or I am lying on the sofa (present) but I lay on the sofa watching TV yesterday (past).

[brydeemer]

I typed the exact same thing. No one knows the difference between lay and lie and we use them interchangeably. I suggest adding it to the list of acceptable answers.

[JanieMuell]

It needs to be said that in English, as used in America, when one hears "lying" used without "down" it can also mean not telling the truth.