Lay or Stick
 

When there is an accumulation of snow, do you say it is "sticking" or "laying"?

sticking.

I've always said "Lay".

please use each in a sentance before i answer...

I say "Holy fucking shit, there's snow on the ground!!"


But in all seriousness, I have never ever heard the term "laying," only "sticking."

I did. When I make a poll, the post is posted, then I can go through the process of creating the poll. Is this the way everyone has to do it, or am I doing something wrong?

Oh, COME ON! I deleted my stupid comment like ten seconds after I made it.

Who wouldn't want to lay LabRat in the snow?

How many ways would you like to stick it to LabRat in the snow?

But seriously, there's a lag between posting the post and posting the poll. Am I doing something wrong?

Lay down in the snow and i'll stick it to ya?

Stop, you one trick ponies :D

Seriously, I don't think I say either. I say, we got 6 inches of snow yesterday. It's snowing, but it's not sticking to the ground? I guess I say stick, if that's what you mean.

Whilst snowing: The snow is sticking
Afterwards: There is snow (laying?) on the ground.

probably wouldn't use laying at all, but definitely sticking while it is snowing.

Stick.

We say sticking, although it never does...:sniff:

Myths Yankees tell to scare real people.

Both I think. Neither sounds strange anyway...

Stick

"It's starting to snow."
"Is it sticking?"

"It snowed last night, there's about an inch on the ground."

"...While the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even..."

I'm with jinx. Both.

Small amounts "stick".

Once it gets over an inch-and-a-half, it lays.

OK, hit the "New Thread" button and write the post including title.
Then instead of hitting "Submit New Thread", skip down to "Post a Poll" and fill that out.
When you're happy with your poll choices, hit the "Submit New Thread" button under that which will take care of both sections. ;)

Neither. It settles.

When it just comes down and accumulates, it definitely "lays" ... if it "stuck", it wouldn't be able to blow into drifts. Sometimes, though, it adheres to a wall, or other vertical surface, so in that case, it would "stick". But I still always say "lay". I'm not really concerned with the snow that "sticks" to a vertical surface, I'm concerned about the snow that "lays", because that's the snow that I have to fucking shovel!

We have an old joke with my 94 year old grandmother...when it snowed she would call my brother and tell him "the ground's covered" whether it was or not. Her theory was that it's always covered with something...grass, dirt, asphalt. So my brother keeps up the tradition and calls her every season when we get significant snow.

We say the snow "sticks" around here, meaning it isn't hitting the ground and melting away.

The snow lies. Lays is ungrammatical.

Unless maybe that's how you get your eggs in the winter.

In which case being the omelette fiend I am, I might want to move there.

Maybe

Maybe not

From your second example: Snow lay thickly over the fields.

I've never even heard "lay" for snow.

Here in beautiful La Crosse on the Mississippi, we say accumulate, and we know a lot about about SNOW

don't know much 'bout trigonometry, but I do know...
 

The two are confused because of the conjugation of the two verbs:

lie: lie, lying, lay, (have) lain
lay: lay, laying, laid, (have) laid

Lie: to be in or move into an esp. horizontal position on a surface:

The mechanic was lying on his back underneath my car.
The cat just loves to lie in front of the fire.
She lay back in the dentist's chair and tried to relax.
Lie still a moment, John.
He lies awake at night, worrying.
He lay down on the bed and cried.
I usually lie down (=rest/sleep) for an hour after lunch.
Snow lay thickly over the fields.


The verb lay means to put (something) in esp. a flat or horizontal position, usually carefully or for a particular purpose:

She laid the baby (down) in its cot.
I'll lay your coats on the bed upstairs.
Perhaps we should lay paper over the floor while we're decorating the room .
She laid aside her book and went to answer the phone.
The dog laid its ears back (=put them flat against its head) and howled.
He laid down his knife and fork, saying he couldn't possibly eat any more.
Lay the rug flat on the ground.
There will be some disruption for the next few weeks while contractors lay a new cable/sewer.
We're having a new carpet laid in the hall next week.
They've been laying bricks (=making a wall with bricks) for two weeks and the first floor is already finished.

As we are not "putting" the snow into a horizontal position, the verb "lay" is correct, not as the original unconjugated "lay" but as the conjugated tense of "lie" as shown above.

So lay is correct, though in a sense UG was correct in that it is a form of the verb lie.

Clear as mud?

Wrong...see example above.

Not quite Shawnee, because lays with an s implies present tense, which means it must be the verb lay, not the past tense of lie.

Yesterday the snow lay on the ground. = Correct
[Today] The snow lays on the ground. = Incorrect

Well poo, Clod...I lie (lay?) corrected. :)

In my enthusiasm that I finally had a handle on something I missed the "s" factor. Thanks! :blush:

I've changed my original vote. I've decided that I would much rather have a lay than a stick.

Who's handing these things out, again?

I was always taught that *things* lay and *people* lie.

I'm afraid that ain't so right either, Elsp. Lay is something done by some thing or person to another thing or person; lie with or to or of itself.

:lol:

Of course there is, it accumulated.;)

Particularly after the snowblower got done piling it.

Wasn't that fun?

I'd say that too if I opened my door and saw it.

We are forecast snow tonight. I am SO excited! The TV says it will snow for 6 hours +

UK Weather Warning from the BBC:
This will be more snow than I have seen since I was at school! The fact that I do not have any suitable footwear is not going to spoil this for me - I think I'll wear my Crocs as usual and bring a pair of thick socks to pad round the office in.

I can't wait to walk across Victoria Park in the snow & look at all the frozen traffic round the side of the park, skidding and cursing and freezing their redundant little paws on cold steering wheels, while I stride proudly on like Captain Oates.

Pictures or extreme humility to follow tomorrow.

Don't do that! :speechls:

Where is my 10-15cms?! (I hope none of you hear that too often)

We have a layer about 1cm thick - in places where it has "drifted" against a wall.

I was this disappointed once in my life. When my Mum told me I could definitely feed the reindeer next year as I'd be old enough then. And a couple of months later admitted it wouldn't happen because Father Christmas didn't exist. "But, can I still feed the reindeer?" I asked, poor simple child.

It's still snowing. But snow later in the day doesn't really count. Like getting a late birthday present. I'll finally forgive the world if it does reach 10cm, but frankly that's unlikely.

I do have another reason for this rather petulant attitude. I decided to be weather-appropriate for once in my life and wore a new pair of trousers to work. Frankly they are too tight still, by at least 2 weeks. And they pinched my flaps all the way in, leaving me more than a little regretful at my choice. I also feel I have to hide again today because my thighs look like two grey pinstriped sausages about to split their skins. BIG sigh. Silly, because 2 weeks ago I wouldn't even have fit into them.

Edited: I can upload photos now, and it's still snowing so I'm a little bit happier... These were taken on Victoria Park - general scene and grit lorry

More Snow Pics
 

I know they don't even count as snow pics as it's a mere dusting, but if willpower had anything to do with it, we'd have had a blizzard I promise you. Snow is now quite rare in most English towns & cities, so this really is a big deal for me.

New Walk, my way into work:

Your town is so pretty!

And finally...
Town Hall Square, which maintained its layer of snow for longer than the rest of the city centre because it's mostly used as a meeting place and lunch location - so less popular in the winter.

I'm from the mid-atlantic, and I've always heard and said that it "sticks."
My fiance is from Eastern Tennessee, and he says that it "lays."

Whatever it is, it's starting to do it right now. :( Gonna be a fun trip home tonight.

Good luck on your trip home, Hime, and Welcome to the Cellar!

Oh I have a love/hate relationship with snow.....it's so pretty...but makes walking the dog kinda difficult on account of him pulling and me slipping....

I took some pics as the snow started to fall. Day one of the snow, not so thick but pretty. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the really deep snow. We got very heavy snow on day two at which point nobody wanted to risk driving but somehow i ended up delivering leaflets in it:P

Anyway. Any excuse to take pics of my village, so here goes.

That was my garden as it snowed and the next morning. Next a picture of a really pretty house in the village.

Note the build date on this house: 1631
Next a beautiful mews. Very typical of Halifax.

This next shot is of a quintessentially Yorkshire chapel. The second shot shows it from a different angle. There's something wonderfully bleak about it I think.

Oh yeah....sorry, the matter at hand: Snow sticks.

Dana, 4th picture. Is that a snow on the hill warning sign? :smack:

Nope, it warns for ice. Sudden freeze after rain = black ice.

I didn't know they had casement windows in 1631. :eek6:

Well, I don't know about that. My guess is the mullions are original but the windows themselves a modern take.

Okay, that's enough snow cover for the Dickensian carolers to not look out of place!

The northern tier of the US is now making igloos in order to have something to do with all the snowpack they got this week. That and digging out people who imprudently tried making snow angels and have succeeded in making deep bore snow angels. They're tracking them by the "ptui! ptui!" sounds they're making as the snow falls in on them.

lol