Put on/put down on

Question

Hello. I had always used phrases like "sit on a chair", "put on a shelf" etc until I came across the phrase "lay down upon" used in my English Student's book (I cannot recall the exact context unfortunatelly).

So, what I want to ask is: Is it always necessary to insert the word "down" in such contexts? Or leaving out "down" is okay?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

"Lay down upon" seems old-fashioned, even ceremonially formal, at first glance because of "upon". My instinct, absent context, is to see "lay" as the past tense of "lie", as in "Dagwood lay down upon the sofa for a nap." Everybody I know would say "on" instead of "upon" there. "Down" is optional, but it reinforces the meaning that he was in the act of lying down. You could say simply, "Dagwood lay down." In that case, "down" is necessary.

Maybe "lay" is the infinitive: "Zebulon was order to lay down upon the bottom step of the dais the offerings he had brought the satrap." "Down" is optional. But if he had been ordered to lay down his weapons, "down" would be necessary.

Outlandishly it might means that soft feathers are being moved to a gravitationally stable position: "Before you stitch the top of the duvet to the bottom, lay down upon the bottom." "Down" is a noun here, and is thus indispensable.

I hope this helps you with your phrase, and I also hope it helps you to appreciate the difficulty of addressing such phrases with no context to go on.

GPY · Answer

"sit on a chair" and "sit down on a chair" are both possible, often with little difference in meaning. Generally speaking, we can optionally include "down" when there is a sense of downward motion, which in the case of sitting is almost always. However, if the emphasis is on the sitting state rather than the action of achieving that state, we would tend to omit "down", I think. For example, "I was made to sit on the uncomfortable chair for over an hour."

"put something on a shelf" seems more usual than "put something down on a shelf". For one thing, putting something on a shelf is not necessarily a downward motion. We may need to reach up. Also, we typically use "put something down" to emphasise "stop carrying it" (e.g. "put those heavy bags down"), which is typically not the emphasis required when we are putting something away for storage.

It is not clear whether you mean to use "lay" transitively or intransitively. In either case, "down" is often optionally possible, since laying and lying typically involve a downward motion. For example: "Lay that rug (down) in front of the fireplace" or "I lay (down) on the warm sand" (past tense). In the latter case, inclusion of "down" emphasises movement towards a reclining position rather than state of lying (similar to the case with "sit").

Make sure that you do not say "lay (down)" when you mean "lie (down)". For example, "The mattress sags when I lay on it" is wrong. Mistaken use of "lay" for "lie" is a horribly grating error that is all too common among native speakers.

Put on/put down on

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