“I was sat” 😤

[FeeFiFoFummy]

Why do people no longer say “i was sitting”?

It’s a a regional variation I think. Doesn’t bother me at all.

I'm from Australia and I've never heard it said that way

It's usually spelt haitch, or aitch...
i don't think much about how I say/pronounce it but on reflection if someone asked me to spell 'high' I'd say 'aitch eye gee aitch'.
But in that context I think it would be also fine to say haitch, i think there definitely are regional differences at play.

I thought it was spelled hatch but copied from the post I was replying to as I wasn't sure.

I disagree, I moved from Scotland to England and find it far more common down here.

I was also taught aitch as aitch in Scotland! Definitely not haitch.

Yes. Was she the one who used to say "Be soon, I say, be soon"?

NO!

I'm English but I was never explicitly taught tenses in English. It was when I came to learn French and Latin that I read the English translations and cottoned on to the three persons singular and plural.
Nowadays I use words from here and there! I think I met the term 'past definite' from learning a bit of Italian, and if I said, "I had sat there for a long time" I'd be using what I call the pluperfect.

The oddest use of it to me is something along the lines of "He was sat on his phone."

A bit dodgy if it was vibrating.

Yes. Hilda Baker always springs to my mind when I hear someone say 'I was sat'.

Brilliant! Think it was when she was playing Nellie Pledge. Nearest and Dearest

What region? It's universal but still incorrect everywhere.

I remember Hylda Baker, I think from reruns of Our House.

I think it’s northern England mostly. I don’t know. Just a feeling. Either way it doesn’t bother me. Many things do. Where I live it’s “we was…” that makes me furious. That’s an Essex / southern thing. Meh. I can’t get worked up about sat.

It’s here in the south too, with people from all levels of education plus, for many years, on tv and podcasts. It’s the media imv that account for the widespread usage. Ages since I’ve heard someone say “sitting”.

I don't think 'we was' is only an Essex/southern thing. It's here in the east midlands and I know someone from the north-west who says it. Essex can't claim it!

interesting - isn’t this just evolution of language and the adjective seated is gradually being replaced by sat? Or is it more that sitting should be used as an adjective? 🤔 Seated feels overly formal anyway
Agree re ‘We was’ though, and ‘I done’ etc - fume!!

Evolution, this old 🌰 🌰 🌰 🌰 again. No it's not evolution.

You’re welcome to it! 😁

It's my Mancunian dialect and I prefer it to saying "I was sitting". It sounds so mimsy and passive. I was not sitting, I was sat there.

Can't you just say 'I sat? ' Perfectly fine. The 'was' is the problem and sounds very irritating and stupid.

Surprises me to hear people getting worked up about it when people are speaking. It’s obviously a regional English thing (but it’s interesting that it’s spreading, at least to me it seems to be spreading). No more annoying than the intrusive R really, much less annoying than hypercorrected usage of ”Mary and I” as PP wrote. That said, I for some reason get super annoyed when people write ”I was sat”. 😂 I am nothing if not a hypocrite.

Only if someone picked you up and plonked you there.

Was adds more emphasis in some phrases.

I was sat there like Piffy on a rock bun.

It adds just the right amount of pissed-off ness.