'I was sat'

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Which is correct?
'I was sitting there and blah blah' or 'I was sat there and blah blah'.
'I was sat' sounds so wrong to me but I'm not sure which is right!
Thanks

Cold is not a verb, so yes, of course you can say that. It should be I balanced on the log. Or I was balancing on the log. Not I was balanced. (Or I am balanced for that matter. 😠)

Interestingly I remember a conversation with my English teacher (not sure why this stuck) on this, in the South 'I was sat' would be marked as incorrect but in the North 'I was sat' would be marked as correct. (This was in the 90s so not sure if the marking scheme would have changed since then)

That might be the case in a classroom, but as an examiner, I have no idea where the scripts I’m marking are from!

That doesn't necessarily follow. The seesaw can more logically be described as 'balanced', because someone actually balanced it. It was in a state of having been balanced. When someone says they were sat on a bench, they rarely mean that someone had sat them there.

Obviously past participles can be used adjectivally ('a finished painting', for example).

'I was exhausted' - perfectly acceptable use of past participle with verb 'to be' and no need to assume I was actively exhausted by something. But the difference between this one and 'I was sat', is that the act of sitting is being done by me, whereas the 'exhausting' is not, so there is no good reason for using the passive construction of 'was' + past participle.

Having said all that, I'm not really a prescriptivist and it doesn't bother me in the slightest if people say 'I was sat'. Perfectly normal colloquial usage.

drspouse

But I can say "look DCs you have a balanced see saw!" Therefore I can also say "I was balanced" e.g. I was balanced on the log, just as I can say I was cold in the car.

Surely "balanced" in "balanced see saw" is being used as an adjective whereas "balanced" in "I was balanced on the log" is a verb, so you can't really compare the two. Also "cold" is being used as an adjective just as "happy" might be.

I've now written "balanced" so much that the word is starting to look really odd

AllProperTeaIsTheft

Obviously past participles can be used adjectivally ('a finished painting', for example).

Just realised you'd said it all and more succinctly

It may be dialect but it is not correct.

"I done it" instead of "l did it" or "I seen" instead of "I saw" are both commonly used in my local dialect. They are also incorrect.

I was sitting is correct.

It’s funny how these days poor grammar is passed off as acceptable ‘because it’s colloquial.’

No, it isn’t. It’s incorrect.

Setting dependent, surely? Nothing wrong with using dialect in texts, social media, MN etc. But it shouldn't be used in more formal emails, letters, articles.

You lose all knowledge of correct grammar after a visit to the dentist?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

It sounds like you use it to add a note of indignation to the sitting. Sounds like it means "I was left sitting there for 40 minutes" when you use it.

Setting dependent, surely?

Totally agree with this.

I know sitting is correct but sat sounds better and is easier to say, rolls off the tongue better.

But it isn't correct anywhere. It may well be dialect, but it's not right.

It's not setting dependent. It's either grammatically correct or not.

However, using grammatically incorrect colloquialisms in casual conversation is less of an issue than in formal writing. I will sometimes use me instead of I in casual conversation as it is common in my area but would never use it incorrectly in writing. I never, ever, under any circumstances use I instead of me as I think that is a crime against grammar and it drives me mad.

(In the North we would have been told I was sat was always wrong by the way so I don't think when I grew up the North was allowed to get away with that kind of thing - may be different now of course).

I was sat constantly annoys me. It is all over the place here in London.

Sat doesn't sound better to me. It totally grates on me. And it really annoys me that it's creeping in to Ireland.

Cluelessaf

But I would say "I was sat there waiting for 40 mins" - about being at the dentist.
So what is going on there?

I think "I was sat" works quite well there as it's a passive use rather than an active use. As OchonAgusOchonOh said, it adds a note of indignation at being left, sitting there with no control of how long that may be.
I'm not sure if it works grammatically but, imo, it's good stylistically.

Sat sounds AWFUL! I wince when I hear it. Unless it was used correctly, for example, "last week I sat in the front row."

I never, ever, under any circumstances use I instead of me as I think that is a crime against grammar and it drives me mad.

I agree. I watch a YouTube cooking channel run by a husband and wife who are retired teachers based in the US, and one of the things I appreciate about them is that they never say things like "It means so much to Mary and I."

"Balanced" is an adjective in both my examples.
I am trying to demonstrate why balanced is a more flexible word than sat.