Questions & Answers about Ich setze mich auf den Stuhl.
Ich setze mich auf den Stuhl describes the action of sitting down (a change of position).
Ich sitze auf dem Stuhl describes the resulting state of sitting (you are already sitting).
You’d say Ich habe mich auf den Stuhl gesetzt.
• Use haben as the auxiliary for reflexive/transitive verbs.
• The past participle is gesetzt.
No.
• stellen means “to place (something upright),” always transitive and non-reflexive (e.g., Ich stelle den Stuhl in die Ecke).
• legen means “to lay (something down flat),” also transitive.
To seat yourself you must use the reflexive sich setzen.
Both mean “to sit down,” but hinsetzen is a separable verb adding hin-, which emphasizes the direction “away from the speaker” or simply feels more colloquial.
In the present tense: Ich setze mich (hin) auf den Stuhl (the hin moves to the end).
German main clauses follow the V2 (verb-second) rule: the finite verb is always the second element. After the verb, you list your objects/pronouns. Reflexive pronouns typically come before longer phrases (like auf den Stuhl), so the order is:
- Ich (subject)
- setze (finite verb)
- mich (reflexive pronoun)
- auf den Stuhl (prepositional object).