Questions & Answers about Ég sit á stólnum.
Why is it Ég sit and not something like Ég er að sitja for “I am sitting”?
Icelandic often uses the simple present (Ég sit) for what English expresses with the present continuous (I am sitting).
Ég er að sitja (literally “I am at to sit”) exists and can mean “I’m in the process of sitting / I’m sitting (right now)”, but it can sound more marked or emphatic depending on context. In many everyday situations, Ég sit á stólnum is the natural default.
What verb is sit from, and how does it conjugate?
sit is the 1st person singular present tense of sitja (“to sit”). Present tense (singular) looks like:
- ég sit
- þú situr
- hann/hún/það situr
Plural:
- við sitjum
- þið sitjið
- þeir/þær/þau sitja
Why does á mean “on” here, when English might say “in a chair”?
With chairs, Icelandic normally uses á (“on”) where English often says “in” (sit in a chair). So sitja á stól is the standard phrasing for “sit on/in a chair.”
Why is it á stólnum and not á stóllinn or á stólinn?