# English grammar: "I was sat there" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118 "2020-01-28T17:31:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/21 "2020-01-29T16:03:09Z")
It’s always helpful in these conversations if people indicate their native dialect, and be clear on whether they are providing the “raw data” on usage in their dialect, or attempting to analyze usage. I find some of the contributions to this thread confusing in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/22 "2020-01-29T22:10:41Z")
Native midwest american speaker and while I would never use it naturally myself, I’ve heard it loads of times from british speakers on podcasts and youtube videos. I understand it as simply meaning “I was sitting there”. Searching for “was sat” on twitter seems to bear this meaning out. From the first couple results: “Harriet just got out of the pool and came to me to see if I was ok because I was sat on my own and the parents are talking to other people.” “Could see Johnston fearing the reaction when he was sat on the pitch.” “Was sat with some our coaches last night watching the sessions contemplating the impact our club has made on the local area” “Guys she was sat minding her business and he troubled her peace… he IS obsessed #loveisland” ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/23 "2020-01-29T22:25:31Z")
There’s a little discussion of the “was sat” usage at this language blog: [https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/having-chinese.html](https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/having-chinese.html) A British commenter claims that these forms are standard in northern England but are sometimes viewed as nonstandard in southern England (like they are in America). Any UKers here agree with that? > [@](#): > > In the northern half of England, and probably in other regions Perfect forms like I was sat, I was stood etc are perfectly normal and acceptable. In parts of Southern England some people regard them as non-standard. For me personally, > > • I was sitting focusses on the posture > • I was sat focusses on the location > • I was seated also focusses on the location but is much more formal > > Present Perfects formed with “be” rather than “have” have a long history in English, but have dwindled in recent centuries. According to a recent Historical Syntax of English by Bettelou Los, these forms continued until about 1900. > > I suspect that was sat, was stood were preserved — if only in regional variants — because they were no longer Present Perfect in meaning. > • I can say I was sat in the front row > • but I can’t say I am was already sat there for an hour or I am sat here long enough. > • I can only say I had already sat there for an hour and I have sat here long enough. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/24 "2020-01-29T23:43:44Z")
I grew up in London in the '70s and '80s, and this was normal usage for me, slightly informal register. So if it originated in the north, it was earlier than that. I don’t agree with his analysis that the difference is focus on posture vs location, that doesn’t hold up from the examples cited in this thread. It can sometimes just be an alternative that’s completely synonymous with usual present participle. But it tends to be used in particular in setting a scene where something somewhat unexpected or incongruous occurs. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/25 "2020-01-30T00:21:58Z")
[Elsewhere](https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/09/exam-was-sat.html) on that blog it’s said by the blog author, a linguist, that “lie” (as in lie down) is a third word along with “sit” and “stand” that can take this construction, and cites a piece of fiction (actually Middle-Earth slash fiction, apparently a sex scene involving Legolas!) > [@](#): > > He was lain on the bed; sheets slewn about him, his bare beautiful body showing as he lay on his side fast asleep. which in standard syntax would be “He was lying on the bed”. Some British commenters said this doesn’t sound grammatical to them. ---
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/26 "2020-01-30T00:27:29Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > [Elsewhere](https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/09/exam-was-sat.html) on that blog it’s said by the blog author, a linguist, that “lie” (as in lie down) is a third word along with “sit” and “stand” that can take this construction, and cites a piece of fiction (actually Middle-Earth slash fiction, apparently a sex scene involving Legolas!) > > which in standard syntax would be “He was lying on the bed”. If we’re still talking about UK usage I would say no. If somebody was lain there I would assume he was unconscious/dead and somebody else put him there. It’s possible this may be a local regionalism somewhere, but I haven’t heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/27 "2020-01-30T00:36:17Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Fascinating, I’ve never encountered this usage before. Is this specific to the word “sat” or can the simple past tense be used in place of the past progressive with other verbs? Are any of these valid? > > I was waited there. (= standard “I was waiting there.”) > I was stood there. > I was ran there. > I was looked for it there. The third one is clearly wrong since ran is the preterite. Try "I was run there "and I find it barely acceptable. What has happened is that the verb is being used causatively. I also find the second acceptable if marginally so, again causatively. The first and fourth are unacceptable to me, but how about “I was looked for there”? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/28 "2020-01-30T00:47:13Z")
[Moderating] This doesn’t appear to be about art. The rules of grammar may be complicated and difficult, but it looks to me like this is still a factual question. Off to GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/29 "2020-01-30T00:47:25Z")
> [@Calavera](#): > > If we’re still talking about UK usage I would say no. If somebody was lain there I would assume he was unconscious/dead and somebody else put him there. It’s possible this may be a local regionalism somewhere, but I haven’t heard it. I wouldn’t know what to make of “I was lain there.” If someone else had put me there, I would have said “I was laid there.” ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/30 "2020-01-30T02:19:39Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > which in standard syntax would be “He was lying on the bed”. Some British commenters said this doesn’t sound grammatical to them. WHICH “this”? The usage in the first, longer quote, or the usage in the second, shorter quote using quotation marks? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/31 "2020-01-30T07:44:10Z")
Just to confuse you, you might hear both used together for emphasis “I was sat sitting [stood standing] there”, but usually as setting the context for the more significant point (as it might be, “for half an hour and you never turned up”, or “why didn’t you see me”). Offhand, I don’t think this is used with other verbs, certainly not of motion - it seems to be only concerned with a static position of some sort. And the whole “lie/lay/lain/laid” confusion is yet another can of worms. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/32 "2020-01-30T08:02:39Z")
I have never heard or heard of this usage before this thread. (Lifelong Southern Ontario Canadian dialect user here.) It is confusing\* me. It sounds like a passive construction, like the OP had been seated there by someone else, not that they had been sitting there of their own volition. _In somewhat the same way as the ambiguous time expression “a quarter of three” does_. Is that “quarter to three” or “quarter after three”? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/33 "2020-01-30T09:34:17Z")
The verb ‘to sit’ can be either intransitive or transitive. In the normal meaning of ‘I was sat there’ the verb is transitive (thought this may be slightly hidden by the passive voice) and ‘sat’ is a participle. In the British dialect usage would ‘was sat’ be an ordinary passive voice verb? Or would ‘sat’ be parsed as an ordinary adjective? But in either case, I think the participle form of ‘to sit’ would be used. > [@Acsenray](#): > > This is something I’ve started noticing in British English speech, the use of the simple past instead of a present or past participle. 😕 I’d think ‘sat’ to be the participle form in any case. It is _not_ the simple past. Or am I wrong? "I was sat here in the restaurant to wait. I was given a menu to ponder and was sunk in thought studying it"Surely ‘sank’ wouldn’t be substituted for ‘sunk.’ Right? (‘Gave’ couldn’t be substituted for ‘given’ since that clause is clearly passive voice.) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/34 "2020-01-30T10:09:01Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > WHICH “this”? The usage in the first, longer quote, or the usage in the second, shorter quote using quotation marks? Sorry, the long quote with “lain” is the one that was found ungrammatical. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/35 "2020-01-30T10:10:07Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > It seems to me that I’ve heard something similar on _Are You Being Served?_ (my definitive source for all aspects of British culture :)). The staff were called in early for a meeting, but no one remembered to unlock the doors so they could get in. Mrs. Slocombe says something like, “We were stood there in the cold for twenty minutes!” The trouble with that is that Mrs S is a character who is acting above her class. She is basically ‘working class’ but tries to be ‘posh’. This is a common trope in English comedy. cf Hyacinth Bucket, who insists that her name is pronounced Bouquet. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kGt-jvU5Iag/maxresdefault.jpg "Hyacinth Bucket's Top 5 Putdowns | Keeping Up Appearances") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGt-jvU5Iag) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/36 "2020-01-30T11:24:44Z")
In that example, Mrs S was slipping up and reverting to her class roots, rather. I think this use of sat/stood probably is best understood as a sort of adjective. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/37 "2020-01-30T19:32:12Z")
Perhaps the following citation is helpful: Everyone remember The Ballad of Davy Crockett by Sons of the Pioneers, 1955? (“Killed himself a b’ar when he was only three”) The B-side of that record was “[The Graveyard Filler of the West](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8S_69_l50k)” in which the singer describes being thrown from an ornery hoss with these words: > [@Sons of the Pioneers: Graveyard Filler of the West](#): > > I don’t know but I’ve been told > That lightning flashed and thunder rolled > And a cyclone hit the seat where I was sat. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/38 "2020-01-30T19:48:50Z")
> [@](#): > > hat’s going on with the “sat there” usage? Does this phenomenon have a name? “Vulgar and uneducated”? I think it is simply another indicator showing that the level of education of the general public has been declining at a troublesome rate. It is reminiscent of Rome when, in its jaded and declining years, what was called “Vulgar Latin” came into use. It was referred to as “sermo vulgaris”, or “common speech”. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/39 "2020-01-30T19:54:53Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > “Vulgar and uneducated”? I think it is simply another indicator showing that the level of education of the general public has been declining at a troublesome rate. The only thing that’s vulgar and uneducated is your bizarre parochial notion that the only valid form of language is that of your own particular time and place, and that any deviation from that must be attributable to “level of education”. Do you regard people who speak a _completely_ different language such as Japanese as “vulgar and uneducated”? If not, then why would you make such an offensive claim about people who speak a _slightly_ different language, i.e. a different dialect of English? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118/40 "2020-01-30T19:59:03Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > The only thing that’s vulgar and uneducated is your bizarre parochial notion that the only valid form of language is that of your own particular time and place. Do you regard people who speak a _completely_ different language such as Japanese also “vulgar and uneducated”? If not, then why would you make such an offensive claim about people who speak a _slightly_ different language, i.e. a different dialect of English? It’s not a different dialect. It’s poor English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-grammar-i-was-sat-there/847118.md?page=3)