Which is it?

Get it Write

> 1. Found the 4"x4" concrete monument with 2"? brass cap lying on the ground.

Technically #1 is more correct.
However, both are somewhat ambiguous. Which object is on the ground?
The monument or the cap?

"... monument along with its 2" brass cap attached..."
would take the ambiguity out.
Maybe just putting commas around "2" brass cap" would work as well.
Just my thoughts.

My [step]Mom was a newspaper writer and editor for a time and she eats these things up.

> 3. Found: a chisiled x; in a 2" flat brass disk, stamped LS12345; in a 4" x 4" conctete post; as descibed in the plat of Pleasantville; in the county of Shangri La; State of California; no longer in it's original position, as it appears to be disturbered. The true position of the original monument was reestablished, based on the nearest available evidence and the said concrete post was placed, with the said x, at the precise postion; within the accepted tolerances for this monument.

B-)

:snarky:
Dougie

At first glance, I wondered if the brass cap was lying on the ground, of if the cap was attached to the monument and the whole thing was lying on the ground.

"...if the subject is acting on some other object, it’s “lay.” If the subject is lying down, then it’s 'lie.'" I got that here, @ common errors in English: lay/lie

That's good points about the cap, I never thought of that :-).

The whole thing is lying on the ground intact except it is broken but held together by the central rebar. I found the hole it came out of which fits the bearing trees (now stumps). Therefore I set an aluminum monument in the hole. I'm preparing the corner record. I'm going to do a Record of Survey but the closing static vectors to one other monument failed to fix because I tried to get away with short sessions so next time I get over there I will need to devote a day to getting some 4 hour sessions. The Corner Record is a stop gap to comply with the 90 day filing requirement.

So I see lay is the past tense of lie while lain is the past tense of lay per Paden's link. This has to be the stupidest pair of words in the English language.

> This has to be the stupidest pair of words in the English language.

No lie!

(Or is that "most stupid")

So either would be correct. If it is broken and not where it belongs it is screwed

Here's what I remember from 9th-grade English grammar. I was good at it at the time. Of course that was 55 years ago--

"Lie" is an intransitive verb; it can't have an object. The lying has to be done by the person or thing that is the subject of the sentence. That's true of two different meanings of "lie."

"Lay" is a transitive verb and needs an object. You have to have some kind of object in your hand in order to be able to lay it somewhere.

English verbs have three forms or tenses. The third tense, past participle, is what is used with "have" or "had." It's often the same as the past tense, but not always.