Should I use sit or set?
You should use sit to refer to the body position you have when you are on a chair:
- I sit for eight hours a day in front of a computer at work.
Or to refer to moving to this position from a standing position:
- Please take a chair and sit down.
The form of the verb “sit” can change to “sat” (“He’s sat down on the bench over there,” “He went to the park and sat on a bench”).
Use set with the following nouns:
- Date (e.g., “The date for the next meeting has been set for 5 May”)
- Alarm (e.g., “I have set my alarm to wake me up at 5 p.m. tomorrow morning”)
- Example (e.g., “Set a good example for your kids by not using your phone at the dinner table”).
The verb “set” is irregular—the simple past tense of set and the past participle of “set” are also “set.”
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will help you to use “sit” and “set” correctly in your writing.