"Han lå i sengen."

Translation: He was in bed.

[pitratfelix]

"å ligge" and "å legge" are easy o mix up just like they are in English :(

[fveldig]

å legge - legger - la - har lagt

å ligge - ligger - lå - har ligget

[SanctMinimalicen]

Coördinately in English (since these are oft-confused words):

to lay - lays - laid - has laid

to lie - lies - lay - has lain

[Arnold511125]

shouldn't the translation be: "He was laying (something) on the bed"? Because "He was lying in the bed" sounds like he was already lying in the bed, so there should be "han la i sengen", because legge - la means that someone or something is lying on the bed. And as far as i remember ligge - lå is an action in action, it means that he was doing an action - laying something or someone on the bed.

[VengerR]

You have it backwards. "Å ligge" is "to lie" and "å legge (noe)" is "to lay (something)"

[A5Sfj]

I put "He laid in the bed." and it is wrong. But I am not sure why. From the comments, it looks like there is a difference between lay and lie. I guess I never learned this because I do not understand what the difference is. Also, I am a native English speaker.

[Candidandelion]

'To lay' and 'to lie' are different verbs.

'To lay' is what chickens do to eggs, or what people do to a table. The present tense is 'lay' or 'laying' (I am laying the table), the simple past is 'laid' (I laid the table).

'To lie' means to tell an untruth or to be in a horizontal position. Dealing with the latter, which is where the confusion arises: the present tense is 'lie' or 'lying' (I lie on the bed or I am lying on the bed - NB, these are the same for either meaning of this verb). The simple past tense is 'lay' not 'laid' (I lay on the bed yesterday). If you say 'he laid in the bed' it means he put something down in the bed, not that he lay down in it.

It is a very common mistake in English.

[A5Sfj]

Thank you for your explanation. It seems that I've been mixing up the two English words all my life and didn't even know it until now.