"Det ligger en katt på puten min."
Translation:There's a cat on my pillow.
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1331
The present participle of the verb 'to lie' (as in 'to lie down') is lie, not lay (the same as in 'to tell an untruth'). It's the cause of a lot of confusion, unfortunately. It has become very common to use 'lay' instead, but it is wrong.
The two verbs are different in the past tense: "I lied about exercising while I lay on my bed". This is the past tense.
If you say the cat is laying on the bed it means they are laying something in the same way a chicken lays an egg, or a person lays the table etc.
If you want to indicate that the cat is resting on the bed, it is it lies or it is lying.
1811
"There lies a cat upon pillow mine" is actually quite perfect, albeit archaic, English word order. Actually it could still be said today poetically. I love how studying foreign languages teaches us more and more about the historical similarities between our languages!
'Lay' and 'lie' are two different verbs in English. 'Lay' (regular, transitive verb) indicates movement, as in putting something down. 'Lie' (irregular intransitive verb whose Past Simple form is, quite confusingly, 'lay' and Past Participle 'lain') describes the horizontal position of an object. Compare the following sentences: He laid (= put) the cat on my pillow. The cat often lies on my pillow.
1331
It adds to the confusion that 'to lie' can also mean to not tell the truth. So, in theory, "I lie on my bed" can mean two very different things and context is everything! They are different in other tenses though (eg, simple past: I lay versus I lied). It's all good fun :D