"Twój kot siedział na moim fotelu."
Translation:Your cat was sitting on my armchair.
35 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
As an (old) Englishman, I’d say it is much more normal to use “in an armchair”. It’s because the chair surrounds you when you sit in/on it. It’s an oddity. For normal chairs, eg at the table, you”d sit on it, unless of course, it belonged to someone else. So, for example, you’d say “I was sitting in the director’s chair”.
1051
There's nothing wrong with "sat", it should be accepted, is it?. But in "sat on armchair" the word "my" is missing...
1051
I don't really know. It could also be a regional thing, but as you can see below, native speakers have different opinions on this topic.
I agree about "Please, sit", but as you usually say that to someone who is standing, it cannot mean anything else...
131
"to sit" can just as equally mean "to sit down" or "to be sitting". This is ubiquitous, not a regional thing. The same thing applies to "lie", "stand", etc.
1051
We already agreed that it can mean both. But the original question was if "Your cat sat on my armchair" should be accepted as a translation. Some say yes, because it means the same as "was sitting". Some say no, because it means the same as "sat down". Native English speakers on both sides...
794
While every armchair belongs to the axiom of chairs, not every chair is an armchair. This would be my explanation for why armchair is still the correct word for such seating furniture.
I think that both prepositions are correct at least for the armchair (both are accepted). Besides, it's a cat. It was probably on top of the armchair, not where you'd sit yourself ;)
Actually, both "w" and "na" are also correct in Polish. "na" of course can mean that it was on the top, but it can be used with a normally sitted person as well.
One translation of the French "fauteuil" is "easy chair." I am thinking of a stuffed arm chair. In the States, a captain's chair need not be upholstered, even though it is an armchair. Somehow I think a cat would prefer a soft chair to a hard one. Clearly the Poles borrowed the word from the French; do they also include upholstery in their concept of the product?