Russian Vocabulary (and Wisdom)

How to say "to lie" in Russian

This Russian word is one of the top 1000 words in Russian. The complete list of most common Russian words is available here.

лежать

Meaning: to lie, to be, to be situated

Pronunciation: [lee-ZHAT']

Part of speech: verb (imperfective aspect)

Rank: #213 (see frequency list)

Example sentences:

Мальчик лежит в кровати.
A boy lies in bed.
Книга лежит на столе.
The book is on the table. (lit: The book lies on the table)
Тебе́ удобно так лежа́ть?
Do you feel comfortable lying like that? (informal)
Город лежит на правом берегу реки.
The city lies on the right bank of the river.
На них лежит обязанность воспитывать детей.
It is their duty to bring up children.

Idioms and set expressions:

лежать в больнице = to be in hospital
лежать на боку = to idle away one's time
лежать на печи = to idle away one's time
У него душа не лежит к... = He has a distaste for...
лежать без движения = to lie motionless, to lie still
лежать в основе = to underlay, underlie
Лежать! = Down!

Proverbs and sayings:

Под лежачий камень вода не течёт.
Help yourself and others will help you.
Где плохо лежит, туда вор и глядит.
An open door may tempt a saint.
Лежачего не бьют.
Don't strike a man when he is down.
Собака на сене лежит, сама не ест и другим не дает.
A dog in the manger.
Хочешь есть калачи, не лежи на печи.
No song, no supper.
Худые вести не лежат на месте.
Bad news travels fast.

Verb conjugation:

Present Tense

I	лежу́
you (singular)	лежи́шь
he, she, it	лежи́т
we	лежи́м
you (plural)	лежи́те
they	лежа́т

Past Tense

I, you (singular), he	лежа́л
she	лежа́ла
it	лежа́ло
we, you (plural), they	лежа́ли

Future Simple Tense

The imperfective verb лежать is not used in the Future Simple Tense. Use the perfective verb лечь instead.

Future Compound Tense

I	буду лежа́ть
you (singular)	будешь лежа́ть
he, she, it	будет лежа́ть
we	будем лежа́ть
you (plural)	будете лежа́ть
they	будут лежа́ть

Imperative Mood (Command Form)

you (singular)	лежи́
you (plural)	лежи́те

View full conjugation table for the verb pair лежать/лечь

Phrase recordings: Copyright(c) 2011 MasterRussian.com. All rights reserved.
Word recordings: Copyright(c) 2006 Streit Goulnara, Streit Eric, Vion Nicolas. Copyright(c) 2007 S. Sakhno, N. Vion. Distributed under CC-BY.

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