Seat or sit?

[Dimandja]

When do you use one or the other? Is there a difference?

 

[sleipnir214]

Good question. Seat and sit are among those English "little words" that seem to have a lot of idiomatic meanings attached to them.

According to YourDictionary.com, seat has the most meanings as a transitive verb, where sit has the most meanings as an intrasitive verb. That might be the basis for a good general rule.



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[Thadeus]

I'm not sure I see the confusion.

'Someone will seat you' not 'Someone will sit you'

'Please have a seat' not 'Please have a sit'
{colloquially using 'sit' this way does occur}

'Do not seat yourselves' not 'Do not sit yourselves'

'The gasket is improperly seated' not 'improperly sitted'

Am I missing something? Is it a regional question?

honestly curious,
~Thadeus

 

[Dimandja]

Thadeus, do you have an example that uses sit?

I found one: Sit yourself over there. Do you agree that this is proper?

 

[SkipVought]

Seat is both a verb and a noun.

Sit is a Verb alone.

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be advised:[/red] When transmitting sheet music...
If it ain't baroque, don't fax it! [/sub]

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I use my "seat" all the time. Heck, I'm using it right now. I don't even know where my "sit" is!

OK, that was lame...

Seriously, though, I think there is more confusion between sit and set.

John

Every generalization is false, including this one.

 

[Dimandja]

Seat is both a verb and a noun.
Sit is a Verb alone.

According to

http://www.yourdictionary.com/,

sit is also a noun:

1. a. The act of sitting. b. A period of time spent sitting.
2. The way in which an article of clothing, such as a dress or jacket, fits.

 

[SkipVought]

I stand corrected!

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be advised:[/red] When transmitting sheet music...
If it ain't baroque, don't fax it! [/sub]

 

[Zathras]

I knew you wouldn't take that sitting down!

 

[SkipVought]

It only stands to reason...

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be advised:[/red] When transmitting sheet music...
If it ain't baroque, don't fax it! [/sub]

 

[Thadeus]

It appears from your example, and the ones I can think of, that if you use sit in this manner, that it must have a preposition to 'finish' the action.

'Sit yourself down.' instead of simply 'Seat yourself.'

~Thadeus

 

[Dimandja]

Thadeus, the dictionary I mentioned above seems to disagree. They even offer more examples that have no 'prepositions'. For example: a theater that sits 1,000 people.

 

[CajunCenturion]

When do you use one or the other? Is there a difference?

Yes, but the answer is not that straightforward. Both sit and seat can function as nouns, transitive verbs, and instransitive verbs. The differences between these two words vary depending on the usage.

Thadeus - Your comment is valid, but only in the context of these two words being used as transitive verbs. Transitive verbs require objects, which may or may not be prepositional phrases, to identify that "thing" upon which the verb action is taking place.

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[Thadeus]

Dimandja, Thank you for the re-reference. I didn't look the first time as I figured you were pointing out the noun-verb thing alone. I did read it through this time and you are obviously correct.

I still stick with my original query however, 'Is there something I am not getting? Is this actually a confusing set of words?' {Can I paraphrase myself? }

Let us know.

~Thadeus

 

[CajunCenturion]

I think it can be a confusing set of words. Consider the following two examples of using the sit and seat as transitive verbs.

The theatre sits 1,000 people.
The theatre seats 1,000 people.

As far as I know, both are equally correct. But consider this:

He was seated as Mayor last year.
He was sat as Mayor last year.

In this case, I think that seated is the correct choice. But to to further confuse the issue:

He is the sitting Mayor.
He is the seating Mayor.

In this case, I think sitting is correct.

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[sleipnir214]

A Google query of "theater sits" returns 744 hits. A query of "theater seats" returns 21300. Although the two are equivalent, the preference, even if idiomatic, seems to be for seats 96% of the time.


In the second pair, it unclouds the issue some to avoid the passive voice:

We seated him as Mayor last year.
We sat him as Mayor last year.

Both examples attempt to use the verbs transitively, so seated seems the correct choice.


In the third set, both examples attempt to use the verbs intransitively. Sits is correct.



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[Stella740pl]

sleipnir214,

A Google query of "theater sits" returns 744 hits. A query of "theater seats" returns 21300. Although the two are equivalent, the preference, even if idiomatic, seems to be for seats 96% of the time.

Are you sure they are equivalent? Could it be that in those hits "theater sits" are noun+verb, and "theater seats" are adjective+noun?

Stella

 

[CajunCenturion]

In the third set, I see is as the verb with sitting/seating as an adjective to the direct object Mayor.

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[sleipnir214]

stella740pl:
You're right -- I didn't think of that.

Lemme see if I can get a better search query


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[AnotherHiggins]

A Google query of "theater sits" returns 744 hits. A query of "theater seats" returns 21300.

That's not a fair comparison. When googling for "theater seats," you are undoubtedly getting many hits for things like "...how many theater seats were available during Spiderman 2's opening weekend..."where 'theater seat' acts as a noun. This is going to unfairly tip the google scale in it's favor.

Having said that, I agree that "The theater seats 1000 people" is probably more widely accepted. In fact, I would dare say that using "sits" in this case is non-standard.

consider this: googling "restaurant seats over" (with quotes) gives about 197 hits, all of which seem to describe how many patrons can fit in a restaurant. "Restaurant sits over" produces 50 hits, all of which describe the location of the restaurant (E.g. ...sits over a lake.)

John

Every generalization is false, including this one.