"Hunden sitter och katten ligger."
Translation:The dog is sitting and the cat is lying.
18 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
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.
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).
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
I definitely think "lying down" should be accepted. People don't say just lying when they are talking about body position.
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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.
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"?
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).
"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.
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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.
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There's nothing wrong with Dualingo's interpretation of this phrase unfortunately, it is not the only correct interpretation and the systems inflexibility to recognise this is costing some of us wasted time, effort and hard earned points again