Stative imperfective: лежа́ть — "to be lying down, be situated (hold the position)" Lie-down imperfective: ложи́ться — "to lie down, be going to bed (the process)" Lie-down perfective: лечь — "to lie down (one completed act)"
Just like the сиде́ть / сесть set, Russian splits English "lie" into a state and an act. Лежа́ть describes the position of being horizontal — a person lying in bed, a book lying on the table, a town lying in a valley — and it is imperfective with no perfective partner in this sense. The act of lying down is a separate aspect pair: imperfective ложи́ться (the going-down in progress or as a habit) and perfective лечь (one completed lie-down). The catch is that лечь is among the most irregular perfectives in the language — its future stem is ля́г- and its past is лёг / легла́, both unpredictable from the infinitive. Memorise them as raw forms.
Present tense
A perfective has no present, so лечь has none. Stative лежа́ть and process ложи́ться both do. Note ложи́ться shows the consonant mutation ж throughout (it is built on лож-, not лог-) and is end-stressed.
| Person | лежа́ть — PRESENT (be lying) | ложи́ться — PRESENT (be lying down) |
|---|---|---|
| я | лежу́ | ложу́сь |
| ты | лежи́шь | ложи́шься |
| он / она́ / оно́ | лежи́т | ложи́тся |
| мы | лежи́м | ложи́мся |
| вы | лежи́те | ложи́тесь |
| они́ | лежа́т | ложа́тся |
Both are end-stressed second-conjugation verbs. лежа́ть takes -а́т in the они́-form (лежа́т) because of the spelling rule after ж (no -я after a hissing consonant); ложи́ться takes the regular -атся (ложа́тся) for the same reason. The тся / ться of ложи́ться is the reflexive -ся, pronounced -tsa.
Кот це́лый день лежи́т на батаре́е.
The cat lies on the radiator all day. — лежи́т: the horizontal state, ongoing.
Я обы́чно ложу́сь о́коло полу́ночи.
I usually go to bed around midnight. — ложу́сь: a habit, the process imperfective.
Твои́ ключи́ лежа́т на ту́мбочке в прихо́жей.
Your keys are (lying) on the shelf in the hallway. — лежа́т: inanimate things 'lie' where they are placed.
Past tense
лежа́ть and ложи́ться build a regular gender-marked past with stable stress. Лечь is sharply irregular: masculine лёг (with ё, which is always stressed), but the rest shifts to end-stress — feminine легла́, neuter легло́, plural легли́ — built on the stem лег-.
| Gender / number | лежа́ть (be lying) | ложи́ться (lie down, impf) | лечь (lie down, pf) |
|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | лежа́л | ложи́лся | лёг |
| feminine | лежа́ла | ложи́лась | легла́ |
| neuter | лежа́ло | ложи́лось | легло́ |
| plural | лежа́ли | ложи́лись | легли́ |
The aspect contrast lives in the lie-down pair: ложи́лся views the going-down as a process or repeated habit ("he was lying down / he used to go to bed early"); лёг is one completed act with a result ("he lay down [and is now lying there]"). The result of лёг is the state described by лежа́ть — once you have лёг, you лежи́шь.
Он лёг на дива́н и закры́л глаза́.
He lay down on the sofa and closed his eyes. — лёг (masculine, ё-stressed): one completed act.
Она́ легла́ по́здно и не вы́спалась.
She went to bed late and didn't get enough sleep. — feminine легла́ (end-stress): a single completed action.
В больни́це он лежа́л три неде́ли.
He was in hospital for three weeks. — лежа́л: the horizontal state over a stretch of time, imperfective.
Future tense
The two imperfectives form the compound future; the perfective лечь forms a simple future on the wholly irregular ля́г- stem.
- лежа́ть (impf) → бу́ду лежа́ть "I'll be lying / will stay lying down."
- ложи́ться (impf) → бу́ду ложи́ться "I'll be going to bed (habitually)."
- лечь (pf) → simple future: ля́гу "I'll lie down (once)."
| Person | лежа́ть → бу́ду лежа́ть | лечь → simple future |
|---|---|---|
| я | бу́ду лежа́ть | ля́гу |
| ты | бу́дешь лежа́ть | ля́жешь |
| он / она́ / оно́ | бу́дет лежа́ть | ля́жет |
| мы | бу́дем лежа́ть | ля́жем |
| вы | бу́дете лежа́ть | ля́жете |
| они́ | бу́дут лежа́ть | ля́гут |
Watch the consonant alternation in the simple future: г → ж before the front-vowel endings (ля́жешь, ля́жет, ля́жем, ля́жете) but г returns in the outer forms (ля́гу, ля́гут). This г / ж swap is one of the few places it survives in the modern verb, a direct echo of how the past лёг vs легла́ also alternates the root consonant. All forms are stem-stressed on ля-.
Я сего́дня ля́гу пора́ньше, я о́чень уста́л.
I'll go to bed a bit earlier today, I'm really tired. — ля́гу: one completed future act (perfective).
По́сле опера́ции тебе́ придётся неде́лю лежа́ть.
After the operation you'll have to stay in bed for a week. — лежа́ть: the imperfective state, here as an infinitive.
Imperative
As with sitting, the gentle, everyday invitation to lie down / go to bed is the imperfective ложи́сь / ложи́тесь. The perfective imperative ляг / ля́гте is markedly irregular (note it keeps г, no soft sign in ляг) and sounds like a firm, specific command — "lie down!"
| Addressee | лечь (pf) | ложи́ться (impf) |
|---|---|---|
| ты (informal) | ляг | ложи́сь |
| вы (formal / plural) | ля́гте | ложи́тесь |
The bedtime line a parent says is the warm imperfective Ложи́сь спать "Off to bed." The perfective Ляг! is more clipped — what a doctor says when positioning you on an examination table, or a sharp "lie down" to a dog. The form ля́гте sounds bookish; in speech people prefer ложи́тесь for the polite/plural.
Ложи́сь спать, уже́ по́здно.
Go to bed, it's late already. — ложи́сь: the gentle, habitual-bedtime imperative (imperfective).
Ляг на спи́ну и не дви́гайся.
Lie on your back and don't move. — ляг: a firm, specific command (perfective, irregular form).
Participles and verbal adverbs
| Form | лежа́ть (be lying) | ложи́ться (impf) | лечь (pf) |
|---|---|---|---|
| present active participle | лежа́щий "(the one) lying" | ложа́щийся | — (perfectives have none) |
| past active participle | лежа́вший | ложи́вшийся | лёгший |
| verbal adverb | лёжа "while lying" | ложа́сь "while lying down" | лёгши "having lain down" (rare) |
The useful one is the stative verbal adverb лёжа "lying down, in a horizontal position" (note the stem stress on ё): чита́ть лёжа "to read lying down." The perfective verbal adverb лёгши is rare and bookish; writers usually rephrase with the past tense instead.
Чита́ть лёжа вре́дно для зре́ния.
Reading lying down is bad for your eyesight. — verbal adverb лёжа, 'in a lying position'.
Key uses & collocations
1. лежа́ть + где (location) — being situated somewhere
The horizontal state takes a location answering где?: лежа́ть в посте́ли "lie in bed," лежа́ть на полу́ "lie on the floor," лежа́ть в больни́це "be in hospital." It also extends to inanimate things and even geography: Кни́га лежи́т на столе́ "The book is on the table"; Дере́вня лежи́т в доли́не "The village lies in the valley." (literary)
Письмо́ две неде́ли лежа́ло на столе́ нераспеча́танным.
The letter lay unopened on the desk for two weeks. — лежа́ло + location, the stative imperfective with an inanimate subject.
2. лечь на / в + accusative — lying down onto / into
The act of lying takes a destination answering куда? — на + accusative for a surface and в + accusative for something you settle into: лечь на крова́ть, лечь на пол, лечь в посте́ль, лечь в больни́цу "go into hospital (as a patient)." The same на/в split you met with сесть.
Ему́ придётся лечь в больни́цу на обсле́дование.
He'll have to go into hospital for tests. — лечь в + accusative; 'be admitted to hospital'.
3. ложи́ться / лечь спать — going to bed
The fixed phrase for going to bed is ложи́ться спать (habit) / лечь спать (one time). Note спать is an infinitive here, not a noun: literally "lie down to sleep." This is the default way to say "go to bed" — far more common than any phrase with "bed."
Де́ти, пора́ ложи́ться спать.
Kids, it's time to go to bed. — ложи́ться спать, the fixed bedtime collocation.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я лежу́ спать в де́сять часо́в ка́ждый день.
Verb choice — going to bed is the act, so use ложу́сь спать (from ложи́ться), not лежу́ (the state).
✅ Я ложу́сь спать в де́сять часо́в.
I go to bed at ten o'clock.
❌ Он ле́гла на дива́н. / Она́ лёг на дива́н.
Agreement + irregular stem — masculine лёг (ё-stressed), feminine легла́ (end-stressed). Match the gender to the subject.
✅ Она́ легла́ на дива́н, а он сел в кре́сло.
She lay down on the sofa, and he sat in the armchair.
❌ За́втра я бу́ду лечь пора́ньше.
Aspect error — the бу́ду future needs an imperfective. The perfective лечь makes its own future: ля́гу (no бу́ду).
✅ За́втра я ля́гу пора́ньше.
Tomorrow I'll go to bed a bit earlier.
❌ Ляжь на спи́ну. / Ляж на спи́ну.
Form error — the perfective imperative is ляг (with г, no soft sign). The spellings 'ляжь / ляж' are nonstandard.
✅ Ляг на спи́ну.
Lie on your back.
❌ Кни́га ложи́тся на столе́.
Verb choice — an inanimate object resting somewhere 'lies' (лежи́т), it does not 'lie itself down'. Reserve ложи́ться for the act of going down.
✅ Кни́га лежи́т на столе́.
The book is (lying) on the table.
Key Takeaways
- Three verbs, two ideas. Лежа́ть = the horizontal state (no movement, imperfective only). Ложи́ться / лечь = the act of lying down (an aspect pair). The result of лечь is the state of лежа́ть.
- Present: лежу́ / лежи́шь … лежа́т; ложу́сь / ложи́шься … ложа́тся. Both end-stressed, second conjugation.
- Past: лежа́л; ложи́лся; and the irregular лёг / легла́ / легло́ / легли́ (masculine ё-stressed, the rest end-stressed).
- Future: imperfective compound бу́ду лежа́ть; perfective simple ля́гу / ля́жешь / ля́гут with the г / ж alternation (stem-stressed).
- Imperative: the gentle invitation is the imperfective ложи́сь / ложи́тесь; the perfective ляг / ля́гте (irregular, keeps г) is a firm command.
- Government: лежа́ть + location (где); лечь на/в + accusative (куда, incl. лечь в больни́цу); ложи́ться / лечь спать = go to bed.
Now practice Russian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Russian→Related Topics
- Suppletive and Irregular Aspect PairsB1 — Some aspect pairs are not built by adding a prefix or swapping a suffix — the two members come from completely different roots (говори́ть/сказа́ть, брать/взять, иска́ть/найти́) or change shape so drastically that you must memorize each pair as a unit; this page collects the high-frequency suppletive and irregular pairs and shows the contrast with one example each.
- Verbal Aspect: The Big PictureA2 — Aspect is the spine of the Russian verb: nearly every verb belongs to a pair — imperfective (process, repetition, general fact) and perfective (a single completed whole with a result). This page explains the pair, the consequences for the tense system (perfectives have no present), and why you must decide 'process or result?' before you even pick a tense.
- Сидеть / Сесть / Садиться (to sit / sit down)B1 — Complete conjugation-and-usage reference for the three-way 'sit' set: the stative imperfective сиде́ть (сижу́, сиди́шь) 'to be seated, be sitting' versus the sit-DOWN aspect pair сади́ться (сажу́сь) / сесть (ся́ду, ся́дешь; past сел/се́ла), distinguishing the position you hold from the act of taking a seat, with the imperatives сади́сь and сядь, the government сесть на/в + accusative and сесть за + accusative, and the everyday traps English speakers fall into.
- Ставить / Поставить (to put, stand up)B1 — Complete conjugation-and-usage reference for the aspect pair ста́вить / поста́вить 'to put (into an upright, standing position)': a regular second-conjugation verb with the в→вл mutation in the 1sg (ста́влю, поста́влю), built into a prefixed pair by по-. Full tables, the imperative ставь/поста́вь, the participle поста́вленный, the accusative + куда́ government, and the three-way posture contrast with класть/положи́ть (lying) and вешать/повесить (hanging).
- Accusative: The Direct ObjectA1 — The accusative marks the direct object — the thing a transitive verb acts on directly. Verbs like чита́ть, смотре́ть, люби́ть, ви́деть, знать all take an accusative object (чита́ть кни́гу, люби́ть му́зыку). Because Russian word order is free, the case ending — not position — tells you which noun is being acted upon, so every direct object must be marked. Object pronouns (меня́, тебя́, его́, её, нас, вас, их) are accusative too.
- Aspect in the ImperativeB1 — Commands force an aspect choice too: perfective for a single concrete request expecting completion (Прочита́й э́то! Купи́ хлеб!), imperfective for process, habit, and — crucially — polite invitations and 'go ahead' permission (Сади́тесь! Входи́те!); and negative commands flip the default, with imperfective for a prohibition (Не открыва́й!) but perfective for a warning against an accidental result (Не упади́! Не забу́дь!).