"La familio sidiĝis ĉe la tablo."

Translation: The family sat down at the table.

[PonyDesu]

Okay, I don't understand this sentence. What would it mean when I said "La familio sidis ĉe la tablo."?

[vikungen]

That would mean they were already sitting at the table.

La familio sidis ĉe la tablo = the family sat at the table.

[PonyDesu]

I think I got it.

Mi ludiĝis - I started playing.

Mi ludis - I was playing

Is that right?

[vikungen]

-iĝ- roughly means to become so "ludiĝi" which I've never seen used would mean something as to become playing, to go from one state, to another where you are playing.

Ek- means to start.

Mi ekludis - I started playing

[mizinamo]

And you can also have "eksidi".

[Joffysloffy]

Yes, it means basically the same thing as sidiĝi.
(EDIT: oops, sorry, thought that was a question for some reason.)

[Benja_Zouras]

I took "sigiĝis" to mean "became seated", so I wrote "the family was seated at the table", but it was marked wrong. I'm not sure exactly why, though.

[Joffysloffy]

I think the difference is between whether the action was on-going or was completed. To me was seated is the result of sidiĝis rather than the action itself; i.e., became seated describes the action of sitting down, while was seated described the action after sitting down.

[mizinamo]

Agreed.

A bit like the difference between "the family was eating" and "the family has eaten".

[Joffysloffy]

Precisely!

[DavidBock9]

I might translate it in English as 'The family seated themselves at the table' or 'The family sat down at the table.'