Word says this sentence is a fragment and I just am having trouble deciding if it is correct.
A terrible feeling lay in his gut.
Help, please!
A terrible feeling lay in his gut.
Help, please!
Is this a fragment?
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No. It's a complete sentence, noun-verb-objective prepositional phrase.
The question of whether or not it's a good sentence can only be answered in the context of the surrounding prose. But more important, you shouldn't worry about sentence fragments. In fiction, they are commonly used, by a lot of verrrrrrry fine writers, for verrrrrry sound reasons.
Just be conscious of what you're writing, and when and why you might want to use a sentence fragment.
And don't depend on your computer, which is far stupider than you can possibly aspire to be, to tell you what is "correct" and what is not.
And carry on.
caw
The question of whether or not it's a good sentence can only be answered in the context of the surrounding prose. But more important, you shouldn't worry about sentence fragments. In fiction, they are commonly used, by a lot of verrrrrrry fine writers, for verrrrrry sound reasons.
Just be conscious of what you're writing, and when and why you might want to use a sentence fragment.
And don't depend on your computer, which is far stupider than you can possibly aspire to be, to tell you what is "correct" and what is not.
And carry on.
caw
Thanks, caw! I didn't think it was, but Word was messing with my mind. Now I can continue reading. 
It's a complete sentence, and lay is correct, assuming it's in past tense.
Maryn, who made herself a lay/lie chart long ago and refers to it often
Maryn, who made herself a lay/lie chart long ago and refers to it often
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Maryn, maybe you could post your chart, since the lay/lie question seems to come up about once a week.
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That deserves a sticky. I lost count of how many times this "lay/lie" discussion has come up. Seriously, it's not that difficult.
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If you know enough to avoid the mistakes made by grammar checkers, you do not need a grammar checker. They can be hilarious, but dangerous.
In the case you cited, for example, the grammar checker was wrong.
Many years ago, a grammar checker (Word's, probably) flagged a purported mismatch between subject and verb in a sentence like this, about my home town, Redlands, California:
"Redlands is east of San Bernardino."
Yep. It thought that "Redlands" was plural. (One Redland, many Redlands. Redlands are east of San Bernardino.) Stupid grammar checker. I long ago disabled that feature on my PC. It is useful only for flagging overly long sentences. But proofreading with a view to overly long sentences does as well or better.
--Ken
I leave my grammar checker on, probably mainly due to laziness. Once in a while, in rough draft work, it flags some stupidity on my part, so, okay. Other than that I just ignore it. I do the same with my spell-checker. In (veryveryvery minor) defense of MS-Word programmers, I suspect that's the main way they expect it to be used, as a tool, not as a Bible.
caw
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