Sit on and sit on

[Crack1]

1] I can sit  on the chair.

2] I can sit on the bench.

3] I can sit in the chair.

4] I sit on the bench.

5] I sit on the chair.

Could you pleas translate the above into French?

[Neil Coffey]

In this particular case (though obviously not in the language as a whole), the pattern of French prepositions pretty much follows that of English. So:

Je peux m'asseoir/Je m'asseois...
...sur la chaise/le banc (on)
...dans le fauteuil (in)

[Simon Z]

You're completely right, but you've just made a little mistake:
It's the verb "s'asseoir" but the first person is "Je m'assois" without "e". You can also say "Je m'assieds", it's the same.

[Crack1]

Thanks for the help

Vous pouvez s'asseoir par terre.
You can sit on the floor.

Is my French sentence correct?

I find it is a bit strange to have different prepositions to a bench and floor.

[Neil Coffey]

It would be Vous pouvez vous asseoir par terre.

[Neil Coffey]

Simon -- both spellings m'assois and m'asseois are widely accepted as far as I'm aware. Actually, the edition of the Petit Larousse I have here suggests "L'usage tend à écrire avec -eoi- les formes avec -oi-: je m'asseois, il, elle asseoira...".

Incidentally for what it's worth, I think some speakers may find je m'assieds a bit more formal than je m'ass(e)ois, though I confess I've never made any detailed survey of this.

[Crack1]

L'infirmière assied ou assoit ou asseoit le malade dans son lit.
The care worker sat the sick person on the bed. [ THIS IS NOT CORRECT.]

(There are people who visit sick and elderly to help for their daily chores. They are care workers. These people are not nurses or doctors; they are laymen.)


Asseoir une statue sur son socle.
A statue sitting on the pedestal. [ NOT CORRECT.]

I copied the above 2 sentences from the Internet.
I can't translate them into correct English.
Please help me.

[Neil Coffey]

In these cases, the verb is transitive, so the translation would be something like:

The nurse sits the patient up in bed.
To set/mount a statue on its base.

I think you could also potentially talk about seating a statue-- anyway, that's the idea. The point is that the verb is transitive in each case, so something/someone is seating somebody/something else.

[Simon Z]

Exact! Au temps pour moi ;)

[Crack1]

Thanks Simon

I am very surprised to learn both my English sentences are correct.
I just guessed to translate.

Are you sure?

[Simon Z]

Oh, I was actually talking to Neil about "je m'asseois". Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Crack1]

So I hope Neil or someone else will find time to look at my question.