Note
important: this is a movement towards a direction (down) you are standing and moving into a sitting position.Usages of sich setzen
Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch.
He sits down at a little table.
an (at) is a preposition that can work with both dative and accusative case.
Accusative is the case of movement towards a direction.
an einen kleinen Tisch
is accusative
He is moving into a sitting position at the table.
Don't worry at this stage too much about the forms. We will tackle that later, but try to grasp the idea of when to use the accusative.
Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch in der Ecke.
He sits down at a little table in the corner.
He is sitting down. (direction >accusative)
The table is standing in the corner (location>dative)
It would be a different case if we said:
He sits down in the corner.
In this case we would have a movement into the corner. >Accusative
Er setzt sich in die Ecke.
Setzen Sie sich!
Sit down! (formal)
Setzen Sie sich doch zu mir!
Why don't you sit down with me!?!
Er setzt sich zu der Frau.
He sits down with the woman.
we don't use 'with' (mit) here in German. It would mean that they both sit down together. Since the woman sits already, the man is sitting down 'to' the woman: zu.
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