Where has the word "sitting" gone

I love this thread!

Sometimes it is pure stubbornness that stops people from speaking correctly. DD is "going in for" a good deal of sloppy teenage-speak at the moment. When I correct her she says Everyone speaks like that.

My reply: I don't. Keep it for when you're with people who talk like that and talk properly at home. I've explained why it's important to be able to talk clearly and grammatically.

DH is stubborn about the word recognise. He says recodnise even though he knows it's wrong

Weird.

Carry on ranting, gracesmum. You are our grammatical conscience.

Yes indeed. Well done gracesmum . I hate hearing 'lay' for 'lie' as well, and your rants are just right.

Thank heavens for gracesmum. I cannot bear it when people say: "We were sat in the pub" or, worse, "we was sat in the pub." And the misuse of "lying" and "laying" is equally infuriating. Charlie on BBC 1 News says "sat" when he means "sitting" and he should be corrected. And far too many people go for a "nice lay down" when they mean they are going to "lie down".

I don't think these grammatical howlers have anything to do with where you live in this country. I think they are a result of sloppy educational values and a reluctance by parents and teachers to correct children when they abuse our lovely language. It probably has something to do with children's human rights. Grrrrr!

I agree with gracesmum. The Sat Nav is sitting on the dashboard - unless he's the man having a break from digging up the road. Perhaps I should have a lie down until the hen has laid an egg for my tea.

You're allowed to rant - it's in Pedant's Corner.

Well, that seems to have banged that one on the head!! Final word on lie and lay:
Wasn't it Dorothy Parker who made a comment about if all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end she wouldn't be at all surprised.

Re "laying" and "lying" :
Laying is a transitive verb, i.e. it has an object - the hen laid an egg, I laid my burden down etc
Lying is an intransitive verb, i.e. there can be no object, so you lie down, a dog lies in the sun and a book lies on the table until I pick it up.
I get so cross at the use of "laying" for "lying" - especially by educated people who should know better.
Ah well, second rant over.

Jenni I lived in Stoke for a while - and worked in an Engineering firm there as PA/translator to MD. Learnt a lot of local dialect in my early days in UK, lol. Followed by Leicestershire, which was interesting too, lol.

First day in first teaching job - an 11 year old from Braunstone, a (in) famous Estate in Leicester asked me 'Miss, why cain't you speak proper like what we do?' - well, yes, indeed Abigail, lol.

Surely "sitting" and "standing" are present participles and used with the auxiliary verb "to be"in the present tense in the continuous present or with the past tense of "to be" to make an imperfect. "Stood "and "Sat" are past tenses and only used correctly in isolation or as a past participle in the perfect tense.
I sit at the front when I go to church/
I am sitting have a glass of wine/
I sat beside him on the park bench/
I have sat here many times/
I was sitting in the corner when the phone rang, etc.
Regional or dialect variations are perfectly correct in context, but now seem to be taking over. End of rant.

Yes OH thinks it was Hilda Baker as well - and our Eli. "Nearest and Dearest" at Pledge's Pickles, we think.

Wasn't it Hilda Baker who was "sat sitting"?

Yow shud cum tae the black country!

Maybe we should all be a bit more tolerant of regionalism?

As a 'furiner' I couldn't believe my ears when I first heard 'I were stood standing there' - lol.

Love the variety it brings to language- providing the context/register is appropriate. Informal talk between friends should allow for this.

I agree it is not a recent usage but a long standing one.

And black country. There was Eli, sat theyer, lookin as daft as a brush, ower kid!

Ahoy! Biker! You'll understand, won't you?

As in "What ya doin' sat thur like cheese a' fourpence when ya could be 'elpin' yu moom, ya daft 'a'p'orth?"

Woops !! thats me wrong again.

It precedes text speak by years. And I believe it to be feature of Northern speech, as in Corrie.

I looked it up on one of the grammar forums and it said that although sitting is correct, sat is often used when we want to convey humour. That sounds right to me - was it Les Dawson who used to say "I was sat sitting...."

What about 'laying', though as in 'I was laying down in bed...'
Or 'I was laid in bed...'

Language moves on and using 'sat' instead of 'sitting' does occasionally sound right, even though it's not gramatically correct.

The gran sat on the mat?