As the other members have told you, the word 'lay' in this sentence is actually in the past tense - 'lay' is the past tense of 'lie'. The problem is that we have two different verbs in English which look similar, sound similar and have a similar - but not the same - meaning. We also have the added complication that the past tense of one has the same form as the present tense of the other. These are the two verbs: 1. lie ( past simple - lay) (past participle - lain) (present participle - lying) This is intransitive verb, which means that it has no object. For example, 'I'm going to lie on the floor'. 2. lay ( past simple - laid) (past participle - laid) (present participle - laying) This is a transitive verb, which means that it takes an object. For example 'I'm going to lay carpet on the floor'. It's also worth mentioning that a lot of native English speakers get this wrong.

Lay is past tense of lie

“The emotion lies behind the words” would be present tense “The emotion lay behind the words” is in the past tense. This is when lay is used to describe a noun in this case “emotion”. But when using lay as a verb laid is the past tense eg: “he laid the towel on the bed”. Or in present tense “the towel is laying on the bed.”