It's no wonder a German discovered Relativity. In addition to the lie/lay distinction English inherited from German, Germans have a whole host of words distinguishing between motion and statis. There are different words for "to hang" and "to be hanging," for "to place in an upright position" and "to be in an upright position," as well as different noun cases for objects at motion and objects at rest. They also use different words for where (wo), where to (wohin), and where from (woher). What I'm saying is, he was smart and all, but Einstein had a head start.