Challenging Verbs: Sit/Set

Sit: to sit (yourself) down.

I sit down on my bed when I am tired.

Set: to set something else down.

I set down my backpack in the hallway when I get home.

	Present	Present Participle	Past	Past Participle
Sit (self)	sit	sitting	sat	sat
Set (object)	set	setting	set	set

Notice that the transitive verb (the one you do to an object) is more regular than the intransitive verb (the one you do to yourself). Set adds -ing to the present progressive, but the present, past, and past progressive are the same. Sit adds -ing, but changes to sat in the past and past progressive.

I sit down on my bed when I am tired.
I am sitting down on my bed right now.
I sat down on my bed yesterday.
In the past I have sat down on my bed.

I set my backpack down in the hall.
I am setting my backpack down.
Yesterday I set my backpack down.
In the past I have set my back pack down.