Sentarse — "to sit down" — is one of the first reflexive verbs every learner of Spanish needs to use, and it packs two grammatical features into one short verb: a reflexive pronoun that travels with every form (me, te, se, nos, os, se), and an e > ie stem change in the stressed forms of the present indicative, the present subjunctive, and most of the imperative. The infinitive sentarse also looks dangerously similar to sentir(se) — "to feel" — and learners mix them up constantly. They are different verbs from different roots and behave differently: this page covers sentarse only, and we'll flag the contrast at every step where confusion typically strikes.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitivo | sentarse | to sit down |
| Infinitivo compuesto | haberse sentado | to have sat down |
| Gerundio | sentándose | sitting down |
| Gerundio compuesto | habiéndose sentado | having sat down |
| Participio | sentado | seated / sat down |
The reflexive pronoun attaches to the end of the infinitive and the gerund (sentarse, sentándose). The gerund picks up a written accent on the á because adding the pronoun shifts the stress count and the accent has to be marked. The participle sentado is also widely used as an adjective: Estoy sentado — "I'm seated, I'm sitting" (a state, not an action).
Indicative — simple tenses
Presente
The textbook e > ie "boot": stress lands on the stem in every form except nosotros and vosotros, where it lands on the ending and the stem stays as e.
| yo | tú | él/ella/usted | nosotros | vosotros | ellos/ellas/ustedes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me siento | te sientas | se sienta | nos sentamos | os sentáis | se sientan |
Siempre me siento al fondo de la clase para ver bien la pizarra.
I always sit at the back of the class so I can see the board clearly.
¿Os sentáis aquí conmigo o preferís la terraza?
Are you all sitting here with me or would you rather go on the terrace?
En cuanto entran los abuelos se sientan en el sofá grande.
As soon as the grandparents come in they sit on the big sofa.
Pretérito perfecto simple
-Ar stem-changers like sentarse do not carry the diphthong into the preterite. This is regular -ar, with the reflexive pronoun in front. (Compare sentir, an -ir stem-changer, which does change in the preterite — that's the structural difference between the two verbs.)
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me senté | te sentaste | se sentó | nos sentamos | os sentasteis | se sentaron |
Anoche nos sentamos en la barra y pedimos un par de cañas.
Last night we sat at the bar and ordered a couple of beers.
Se sentó a mi lado sin decir ni una palabra.
He sat down next to me without saying a word.
Pretérito imperfecto
Perfectly regular -ar imperfect. Used for habits, ongoing states, and background description in the past.
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me sentaba | te sentabas | se sentaba | nos sentábamos | os sentabais | se sentaban |
De pequeños nos sentábamos a ver los dibujos los sábados por la mañana.
As little kids we used to sit and watch cartoons on Saturday mornings.
Futuro simple
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me sentaré | te sentarás | se sentará | nos sentaremos | os sentaréis | se sentarán |
Cuando llegue el ponente, nos sentaremos en la primera fila.
When the speaker arrives, we'll sit in the front row.
Condicional
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me sentaría | te sentarías | se sentaría | nos sentaríamos | os sentaríais | se sentarían |
Yo me sentaría un rato, llevo todo el día de pie.
I'd sit down for a bit — I've been on my feet all day.
Indicative — compound tenses
Compound tenses keep the reflexive pronoun in front of haber. The pronoun never attaches to the participle: me he sentado, never he sentadome.
Pretérito perfecto compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me he sentado | te has sentado | se ha sentado | nos hemos sentado | os habéis sentado | se han sentado |
Hoy me he sentado a comer con calma por primera vez en toda la semana.
Today I've sat down to eat in peace for the first time all week.
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me había sentado | te habías sentado | se había sentado | nos habíamos sentado | os habíais sentado | se habían sentado |
Cuando llegamos al cine, ya se había sentado todo el mundo.
When we got to the cinema, everyone had already sat down.
Futuro compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me habré sentado | te habrás sentado | se habrá sentado | nos habremos sentado | os habréis sentado | se habrán sentado |
Condicional compuesto
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me habría sentado | te habrías sentado | se habría sentado | nos habríamos sentado | os habríais sentado | se habrían sentado |
Si lo hubiera sabido antes, me habría sentado con vosotros.
If I'd known earlier, I would have sat with you all.
Subjunctive — simple tenses
Presente de subjuntivo
The same e > ie boot as the present indicative — -ar opposite-vowel endings (-e family).
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me siente | te sientes | se siente | nos sentemos | os sentéis | se sienten |
Quiero que os sentéis y me escuchéis un momento.
I want you all to sit down and listen to me for a moment.
No hay quien se siente bien en esa silla, está rotísima.
There's no way anyone could sit comfortably in that chair — it's totally broken.
Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)
Built on the 3rd-plural preterite sentaron, so the imperfect subjunctive is perfectly regular for -ar. Both -ra and -se forms exist. The -ra set is the everyday choice in spoken Spain; -se survives in formal writing.
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | me sentara | te sentaras | se sentara | nos sentáramos | os sentarais | se sentaran |
| -se | me sentase | te sentases | se sentase | nos sentásemos | os sentaseis | se sentasen |
Si me sentara ahora, no me levantaría hasta mañana.
If I sat down right now, I wouldn't get up until tomorrow.
Subjunctive — compound tenses
Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| me haya sentado | te hayas sentado | se haya sentado | nos hayamos sentado | os hayáis sentado | se hayan sentado |
Me alegro de que por fin os hayáis sentado a hablar.
I'm glad you've finally sat down to talk.
Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo
| yo | tú | él | nosotros | vosotros | ellos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ra | me hubiera sentado | te hubieras sentado | se hubiera sentado | nos hubiéramos sentado | os hubierais sentado | se hubieran sentado |
| -se | me hubiese sentado | te hubieses sentado | se hubiese sentado | nos hubiésemos sentado | os hubieseis sentado | se hubiesen sentado |
Imperative
The reflexive imperative is where peninsular Spanish shows one of its most recognizable forms: the affirmative vosotros drops the final -d of the infinitive root before the -os pronoun is added, giving ¡sentaos! rather than the expected sentados. This -d drop is automatic for every reflexive -ar verb in the affirmative vosotros (levantaos, callaos, lavaos, vestíos), and only the irregular idos (from irse) preserves the -d.
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tú | siéntate | no te sientes |
| usted | siéntese | no se siente |
| nosotros | sentémonos | no nos sentemos |
| vosotros | sentaos | no os sentéis |
| ustedes | siéntense | no se sienten |
Note the written accents on siéntate, siéntese, sentémonos, siéntense — when pronouns attach to a stressed form, the original stress is preserved with a graphic accent. The nosotros affirmative sentémonos also drops the final -s of the verb before the -nos pronoun (otherwise it would be sentémosnos).
Siéntate aquí, que se ve mejor la tele.
Sit here — you can see the TV better.
¡Sentaos donde queráis, hay sitio de sobra!
Sit wherever you like — there's plenty of room!
No se siente en esa silla, está rota.
Don't sit on that chair (formal), it's broken.
Sentarse vs sentar — reflexive and non-reflexive
The non-reflexive sentar exists as a separate, very common verb meaning "to suit, to agree with" — used to talk about how food, weather, clothes, or news sits with a person.
- Me sienta bien el café. — Coffee agrees with me. / Coffee suits me.
- Esa chaqueta te sienta de maravilla. — That jacket looks great on you.
- La cena no me ha sentado nada bien. — Dinner really didn't agree with me.
- Le sentó fatal el comentario. — The comment hit him really badly.
In this construction the subject is what suits you (the food, the jacket, the comment), and the person is an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les). It conjugates exactly like sentarse in the stem change (sienta, sientan) but without the reflexive pronouns. Native speakers use it constantly, especially with food and clothes.
A mi madre el sol no le sienta bien, le da migrañas.
The sun doesn't agree with my mother — it gives her migraines.
¿Cómo te sentó la noticia? — Pues no muy bien, la verdad.
How did the news hit you? — Honestly, not great.
High-frequency collocations from peninsular Spanish
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| sentarse a la mesa | to sit down at the table (for a meal) |
| sentarse a hablar | to sit down and talk (have a proper conversation) |
| sentarse en el suelo | to sit on the floor |
| ¡siéntate! | sit down! (to a person; to a dog: ¡sienta!) |
| tomar asiento | (formal) to take a seat — common in offices, theatres |
| sentarse a esperar | to sit and wait |
| quedarse sentado | to stay seated |
| estar sentado | to be seated, to be sitting |
A useful distinction: sentarse is the action of sitting down, estar sentado is the resulting state of being seated. English uses "sit" for both — Spanish does not. Está sentado means "he is sitting (right now, already seated)"; se sienta means "he is sitting down (the act of taking a seat)." This is the same active/stative split as acostarse / estar acostado.
Llevo dos horas sentado delante del ordenador y no he avanzado nada.
I've been sitting in front of the computer for two hours and I've made no progress.
Common Mistakes
❌ Yo sento aquí.
✅ Yo me siento aquí.
I'm sitting here.
❌ Estoy sentando en el sofá.
Estar sentando is wrong here on two counts: bare sentando (gerund of non-reflexive sentar) means 'seating someone' or 'suiting', and the reflexive gerund would be sentándome. But for the static meaning 'I'm sitting on the sofa', Spanish doesn't use the progressive at all — it uses estar + participle: Estoy sentado en el sofá.
✅ Estoy sentado en el sofá.
I'm sitting on the sofa.
❌ ¡Sentados, por favor!
The affirmative vosotros imperative of a reflexive -ar verb drops the -d before -os. The correct form is ¡Sentaos! (Sentados is the participle.)
✅ ¡Sentaos, por favor!
Please sit down, everyone!
❌ Sientate aquí, por favor.
Affirmative tú imperatives with an attached pronoun require a written accent to preserve the original stress: siéntate, not sientate. The accent is mandatory whenever attaching a pronoun shifts a stressed syllable away from its default position.
✅ Siéntate aquí, por favor.
Sit here, please.
❌ Siéntate te aquí.
With the affirmative tú imperative, the reflexive pronoun attaches directly to the verb (one word): siéntate. Do not repeat the pronoun.
✅ Siéntate aquí.
Sit here.
Key Takeaways
- Sentarse is a reflexive -ar verb with an e > ie stem change in the stressed forms (me siento, te sientas, se sienta… nos sentamos, os sentáis, se sientan).
- The diphthong appears only when the stem is stressed — nosotros and vosotros keep the e intact in the present tense.
- The preterite is fully regular -ar (no stem change), which sets sentarse apart from sentir.
- The affirmative vosotros imperative drops the -d of the infinitive root before the -os pronoun: ¡sentaos!, not sentados.
- Sentarse (action of sitting down) is not the same as estar sentado (state of being seated) — Spanish keeps the distinction English collapses.
- Sentar (non-reflexive) is a different, very common verb meaning "to suit, to agree with" — me sienta bien el café.
- Sentarse and sentir look alike but are different verbs. In the present indicative me siento could be either, so always check context.
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Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
- Conjugación de verbos reflexivosA2 — How to conjugate reflexive verbs in peninsular Spanish, where to place the pronouns, and the famous os imperative trap.
- Cambio vocálico: e>ie (pensar, querer, preferir)A2 — The most common stem-change pattern in Spanish: stressed e becomes ie in the 'boot' forms — yo, tú, él, ellos — while nosotros and vosotros keep the simple e.
- Imperativo afirmativo de vosotros: ¡hablad!A2 — The peninsular affirmative vosotros command — replace the -r of the infinitive with -d, drop the -d before reflexives, and never substitute the infinitive.
- sentirA1 — Full conjugation reference for sentir (to feel, to sense, to regret) — an -ir stem-changer with two related changes (e>ie in stressed present forms, e>i in the preterite 3rd persons and the gerund). Includes every tense, the reflexive sentirse for emotional and physical states, and the contrast with the look-alike sentarse, which trips up nearly every learner.
- acostarseA1 — Full conjugation reference for acostarse (to go to bed) — a reflexive -ar verb with an o>ue stem change in the stressed forms. Includes every simple and compound tense, the full peninsular imperative paradigm (including the irregular acostaos), and the most common daily-routine collocations in Spain.
- Cambios vocálicos en la raízA2 — The four stem-change patterns in Spanish verbs — e→ie, o→ue, e→i, u→ue — the 'boot' shape they make, and why vosotros sits outside the boot.