gelegt

gelegt is the past participle of the German verb legen, which means to lay, place, or put something down. It is used with the auxiliary haben to form perfect tenses, for example: Ich habe das Buch auf den Tisch gelegt. It can also appear in the passive voice with werden: Der Stein wird gelegt; Das Fundament ist gelegt worden. In addition, gelegt may function in participial phrases and certain fixed expressions, often describing a completed placing action.

The core meaning of legen is an act of placing an object somewhere, in contrast to liegen, which means to lie or be located. liegen is intransitive and has the past participle gelegen; the action-oriented counterpart legen takes a direct object and uses gelegt. Learners frequently confuse the two because both relate to positioning, but legen emphasizes the act of placing, while liegen describes a state of rest or position. Example contrasts: Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch (the book is lying on the table) vs. Ich habe das Buch auf den Tisch gelegt (I placed the book on the table).

Common usages include describing concrete placement tasks (e.g., etwas auf den Boden legen), construction or installation projects (Die Fliesen wurden gestern gelegt), and idiomatic expressions such as etwas auf die lange Bank legen, meaning to postpone something. The verb is widely used in everyday language, from household actions to formal reports about laid-out plans or arrangements.

Etymology and cognates: legen comes from the Germanic language family and has close relatives in Dutch leggen and English lay. The word is related to other Germanic terms for setting or putting down and shares a common Proto-Germanic origin.