Сидеть / Сесть / Садиться (to sit / sit down) | Russian Grammar

Stative imperfective: сиде́ть — "to be sitting, be seated (hold the position)" Sit-down imperfective: сади́ться — "to sit down, be taking a seat (the process)" Sit-down perfective: сесть — "to sit down (one completed act)"

English uses one verb, "sit," for two completely different ideas: holding a seated position ("she sits at the desk all day") and the act of lowering yourself into a seat ("please sit down"). Russian splits these. Сиде́ть describes the state of being seated — it has no natural endpoint, so it is imperfective with no perfective partner in this sense. The act of sitting down is a separate verb with its own aspect pair: imperfective сади́ться (the lowering in progress or as a habit) and perfective сесть (one completed plop into the chair). The three share the root сид-/сяд-/сад- but behave like three distinct verbs, which is why this page treats them together. Everything below is worth memorising as raw forms — the stem alternations will not generate themselves.

Present tense

A perfective has no present, so сесть has none. Both imperfectives — stative сиде́ть and process сади́ться — do. Note the consonant mutation: сиде́ть shows д → ж in the я-form only (сижу́), while сади́ться shows д → ж the same way (сажу́сь) but keeps -ди- everywhere else.

Person	сиде́ть — PRESENT (be seated)	сади́ться — PRESENT (be sitting down)
я	сижу́	сажу́сь
ты	сиди́шь	сади́шься
он / она́ / оно́	сиди́т	сади́тся
мы	сиди́м	сади́мся
вы	сиди́те	сади́тесь
они́	сидя́т	садя́тся

Both are end-stressed second-conjugation verbs. The тся / ться ending of сади́ться is the reflexive -ся attached after the normal ending; it is pronounced as a hard -tsa but spelled with the soft sign in the infinitive (сади́ться) and without it in the third person (сади́тся).

Он це́лый день сиди́т за компью́тером.

He sits at the computer all day. — сиди́т: the seated state, ongoing. No movement is implied.

Проходи́те, сади́тесь, я сейча́с освобожу́сь.

Come in, take a seat, I'll be free in a moment. — сади́тесь: the polite invitation to sit down (process imperfective).

Пти́цы сидя́т на проводе́ ря́дышком.

The birds are sitting on the wire side by side. — сидя́т: perched, holding position.

Past tense

Сиде́ть and сади́ться build a regular gender-marked past with stable stress. Сесть is irregular and short: the masculine сел keeps a normal -л, but the stem vowel shifts to е (not the -я- of ся́ду), and the whole paradigm is stem-stressed on се-.

Gender / number	сиде́ть (be seated)	сади́ться (sit down, impf)	сесть (sit down, pf)
masculine	сиде́л	сади́лся	сел
feminine	сиде́ла	сади́лась	се́ла
neuter	сиде́ло	сади́лось	се́ло
plural	сиде́ли	сади́лись	се́ли

The aspect contrast lives in the sit-down pair: сади́лся views the lowering as a process or a repeated habit ("he was sitting down / he used to sit there"); сел is one completed act with a result ("he sat down [and is now seated]"). Crucially, the result of сел is the state described by сиде́ть — once you have сел, you сиди́шь.

Я сел в кре́сло и сра́зу усну́л.

I sat down in the armchair and fell asleep at once. — сел: one completed act, the perfective of sitting down.

В шко́ле я всегда́ сиде́л на пе́рвой па́рте.

At school I always sat at the front desk. — сиде́л: a habitual seated position over years, the stative imperfective.

Она́ се́ла на дива́н и откры́ла кни́гу.

She sat down on the sofa and opened a book. — feminine се́ла (stem-stressed); a single completed action.

💡

Test which verb you need by asking: holding a position or changing position? If you could replace English "sit" with "be sitting / be seated," use сиде́ть. If you could replace it with "sit down / take a seat," use сади́ться / сесть. "He sat there for two hours" = сиде́л (held the position); "He sat down at the table" = сел (took the seat).

Future tense

The two imperfectives form the compound future; the perfective сесть forms a simple future on the ся́д- stem.

сиде́ть (impf) → бу́ду сиде́ть "I'll be sitting / will stay seated."
сади́ться (impf) → бу́ду сади́ться "I'll be sitting down (repeatedly / habitually)."
сесть (pf) → simple future: ся́ду "I'll sit down (once)."

Person	сиде́ть → бу́ду сиде́ть	сесть → simple future
я	бу́ду сиде́ть	ся́ду
ты	бу́дешь сиде́ть	ся́дешь
он / она́ / оно́	бу́дет сиде́ть	ся́дет
мы	бу́дем сиде́ть	ся́дем
вы	бу́дете сиде́ть	ся́дете
они́	бу́дут сиде́ть	ся́дут

The forms ся́ду, ся́дешь… ся́дут look like a present but are the future, because сесть is perfective. They are stem-stressed throughout. The everyday "I'll sit (somewhere)" — choosing a seat on a train, at a table — is the perfective ся́ду.

Я ся́ду у окна́, там вид лу́чше.

I'll sit by the window, the view is better there. — ся́ду: one planned, completed choice of seat (perfective future).

Сего́дня ве́чером я бу́ду сиде́ть до́ма.

Tonight I'll be sitting at home (staying in). — бу́ду сиде́ть: an ongoing state, imperfective future.

Imperative

This is where learners most often slip. The polite, neutral invitation to sit down is the imperfective сади́сь / сади́тесь — not the perfective. The perfective сядь / ся́дьте is sharper, more like a direct command ("sit down!"), and is the normal choice when you want one specific seat taken now.

Addressee	сесть (pf)	сади́ться (impf)
ты (informal)	сядь	сади́сь
вы (formal / plural)	ся́дьте	сади́тесь

There is a cultural reason to prefer сади́сь when offering a chair: the perfective Сядь! can sound abrupt — the kind of thing a teacher snaps at a pupil — and the bare imperative Сядьте to a guest is borderline rude. To welcome someone, Russians say the warm imperfective Сади́тесь, пожа́луйста. (You may hear Приса́живайтесь as a chatty softener; it is no more polite than сади́тесь, so standard registers are fine with either.)

Сади́тесь, пожа́луйста, чу́вствуйте себя́ как до́ма.

Please have a seat, make yourself at home. — сади́тесь: the polite, welcoming imperative (imperfective).

Сядь ро́вно и не верти́сь!

Sit up straight and stop fidgeting! — сядь: a sharp, specific command (perfective).

Participles and verbal adverbs

Form	сиде́ть (be seated)	сади́ться (impf)	сесть (pf)
present active participle	сидя́щий "(the one) sitting"	садя́щийся	— (perfectives have none)
past active participle	сиде́вший	сади́вшийся	се́вший
verbal adverb	си́дя "while sitting"	садя́сь "while sitting down"	сев "having sat down"

The most useful of these is the stative verbal adverb си́дя "while seated, in a sitting position" (note the stem stress here, unlike the verb): чита́ть си́дя "to read sitting down," рабо́тать си́дя "to work seated." The perfective сев "having sat down" is common in narrative writing.

Врачи́ сове́туют не есть си́дя пе́ред телеви́зором.

Doctors advise against eating while sitting in front of the TV. — verbal adverb си́дя (stem-stressed), 'in a seated position'.

Key uses & collocations

1. сиде́ть + где (location) — being seated somewhere

The seated state takes a location answering где? — usually prepositional or a static phrase: сиде́ть за столо́м "sit at the table," сиде́ть на сту́ле "sit on a chair," сиде́ть до́ма "stay at home." No motion, no destination.

Мы до́лго сиде́ли в кафе́ и разгова́ривали.

We sat in the café for a long time talking. — сиде́ли + location, the seated state.

2. сесть на / в + accusative — sitting down onto / into

The act of sitting takes a destination answering куда? — на + accusative for a surface (a chair, a bench, a horse) and в + accusative for something you sit inside (an armchair, a car, a plane): сесть на стул, сесть в кре́сло, сесть в маши́ну. This is also how you say "to board / get on" transport: сесть на по́езд / на авто́бус, сесть в по́езд "catch / board the train."

Сади́тесь в маши́ну, я вас подвезу́.

Get in the car, I'll give you a lift. — сади́ться в + accusative; the act of getting in.

Мы е́ле успе́ли сесть на после́дний авто́бус.

We barely managed to catch the last bus. — сесть на + accusative = board / catch transport.

3. сесть за + accusative — sitting down to (do) something

To sit down to an activity, use сесть за + accusative: сесть за стол "sit down at the table (to eat)," сесть за рабо́ту "settle down to work," сесть за руль "get behind the wheel," сесть за уро́ки "sit down to do homework." The за + accusative marks the activity you settle into.

По́сле у́жина он сел за рабо́ту и просиде́л до утра́.

After dinner he settled down to work and stayed at it till morning. — сел за рабо́ту = sit down to work.

4. сесть = to be imprisoned (informal)

A high-frequency colloquial use: сесть (intransitive, no object) means "to be sent to prison, to go to jail," and сиде́ть means "to be doing time" — the seated-state logic applied to a prison sentence. Он сел на пять лет "He got five years"; Он сиди́т "He's in jail." Useful to recognise, common in news and conversation.

За тако́е мо́жно сесть на не́сколько лет.

You can go to prison for several years for something like that. — сесть (informal) = to be jailed.

Common Mistakes

❌ Сади́тесь на стул, и сиди́тесь споко́йно.

Mixed verbs — to describe staying seated, use the stative сиди́те (from сиде́ть), not the sit-down verb. Сади́тесь is only the act of sitting down.

✅ Сади́тесь на стул и сиди́те споко́йно.

Sit down on the chair and sit quietly.

❌ Сядь, пожа́луйста. (to a guest you're welcoming)

Register clash — the bare perfective Сядь sounds abrupt, even rude, as a welcome. Use the warm imperfective Сади́сь / Сади́тесь to invite someone to sit.

✅ Сади́сь, пожа́луйста, я тебе́ ча́ю налью́.

Have a seat, please, I'll pour you some tea.

❌ Я сиде́л на по́езд в во́семь утра́.

Verb choice — boarding a train is the act of sitting down: сел на по́езд. Сиде́л is being seated, not getting on.

✅ Я сел на по́езд в во́семь утра́.

I got on the train at eight in the morning.

❌ За́втра я бу́ду сесть у окна́.

Aspect error — the бу́ду future needs an imperfective. The perfective сесть makes its own future: ся́ду (no бу́ду).

✅ За́втра я ся́ду у окна́.

Tomorrow I'll sit by the window.

❌ Она́ сел на дива́н.

Agreement error — the past agrees in gender: feminine се́ла, masculine сел. Match it to the subject.

✅ Она́ се́ла на дива́н.

She sat down on the sofa.

Key Takeaways

Three verbs, two ideas. Сиде́ть = the seated state (no movement, imperfective only). Сади́ться / сесть = the act of sitting down (an aspect pair). The result of сесть is the state of сиде́ть.
Present: сижу́ / сиди́шь … сидя́т (д→ж only in сижу́); сажу́сь / сади́шься … садя́тся. Both end-stressed, second conjugation.
Past: сиде́л; сади́лся; and the short, irregular, stem-stressed сел / се́ла / се́ли.
Future: imperfective compound бу́ду сиде́ть; perfective simple ся́ду / ся́дешь / ся́дут (stem-stressed).
Imperative: the polite invitation is the imperfective сади́сь / сади́тесь; the perfective сядь / ся́дьте is a sharp command.
Government: сиде́ть + location (где); сесть на/в + accusative (куда, including boarding transport); сесть за + accusative (settle down to an activity).
Idiom: сесть / сиде́ть also mean "go to / be in prison" (informal).

Now practice Russian

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Russian→