legen or liegen?
a2One of several such pairs: legen is the action (someone puts something somewhere, accusative), liegen is the state (something lies somewhere, dative). stellen/stehen, setzen/sitzen and hängen/hängen work the same way.
legen
Regular, takes an object, answers „Wohin?“ (where to) - followed by the accusative.
Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch.I'm putting the book on the table.
liegen
Irregular (lag, gelegen), no object, answers „Wo?“ (where) - followed by the dative.
Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch.The book is lying on the table.
The mistake
Ich liege das Buch auf dem Tisch.
Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch.
Moving something needs the action verb and the accusative - „liegen“ cannot take an object at all.
Rule of thumb
The action verbs are all regular (legen, stellen, setzen); the state verbs are all irregular (lag, stand, saß).
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