What does ‘to be lying’ mean in the following sentence?
I’d like to be lying on the beach right now.
The pattern is “I’d like to be ~ing”. This means that you wish that you were doing the activity described by ~ing. In this case the activity is “lying on the beach”.
Surely it should be ‘laying on the beach’, unless he’s telling lies while on the beach.
Um, no, I don’t think so… the only thing that could be “laying on a beach” is a hen.