A lie is a statement made by someone who believes or suspects it to be false in the expectation that the hearers may believe it. A true statement may be a lie if the speaker thinks it is false. Fictions, though false, are not lies. To lie is to tell a lie. A person who tells a lie, and especially a person who habitually tells lies, is a liar. To lie involves intentional deception.
Don’t confuse!
Lie – lied – lied Lie – lay – lain Lay – laid - laid
Some Quotations about Honesty:
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. - Mark Twain No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. - Abraham Lincoln A half truth is a whole lie. - Yiddish Proverb With lies you may get ahead in the world - but you can never go back. A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future. - Author Unknown Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half. - Author Unknown
Here are some expressions containing the word lie:
to lie through one’s teeth - to tell someone something which you know is completely false to tell somebody a lie or lies - to say something or things that are not true to live a lie - to live in a way that is dishonest because you are pretending to be something that you are not, to yourself or to other people white lie - a lie that is told in order to be polite or to stop someone from being upset by the truth lie detector - a piece of equipment used to try to discover if someone is telling lies
She told me a lie. You won’t get far by lying. Don’t lie to me! You have been lying to me the whole time.
Now we put new vocabulary into context, so you can see how you might use these terms yourself. The expressions are in boldface in the text.
They were accused of lying.
Dave was lying through his teeth when he said he’d never seen her before; they’ve known each other for years.
If you’re going to tell somebody a lie, you better have a good memory.
How can somebody lie right to someone’s face and stare them in the eye.
Please don’t lie to me, unless you’re absolutely sure I’ll never find out the truth. White lie can be defined as an often trivial, diplomatic, or well-intentioned untruth.
During a lie detector test, the operator asks a series of control questions that set the pattern of how an individual responds when giving true and false answers. Then the actual questions are asked, mixed in with filler questions. The examination lasts about 2 hours, after which the expert interprets the data.
