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Vie or Vye?

Vie or Vye?

Writers are sometimes confused whether to use vie or vye. To vye is the obsolete form of to vie. The letter y only appears in vying.

The verb to vie means to compete with someone in order to achieve something.

Examples:

• The government is heading for serious political instability as its rival party vies for power.
• The top students in the class vied for the title of valedictorian.
• The Japanese potters could never vie with the Chinese in the production of glazes.
• The swimmers were vying for a place on team USA.

Conjugating the Verb To Vie

Here is the conjugation of the verb to vie.

Pronoun	Person	Simple Present	Simple Past
I	First person singular	vie	vied
You	Second person singular	vie	vied
He/She/It	Third person singular	vies	vied
We	First person plural	vie	vied
You	Second person plural	vie	vied
They	Third person plural	vie	vied

Present Participle of To Vie

The present participle of the verb to vie is vying (i.e., it retains the y from the obsolete version).

The verb to vie is like to lie, the present participle of which is lying.

Examples:

• We are independent of the two factions that are vying for power.
• I'm really interested in cliques. I like watching girls vying for attention. (Lorde)