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📚 This is the overview. « s’asseoir » is taught level by level — pick your CEFR level below for a full lesson (explanation, pronunciation, exercises & games).
Five phrases with « s’asseoir » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
S’asseoir — to sit down — is French’s famous double verb: it possesses TWO complete present paradigms, both correct. The classic: je m’assieds, tu t’assieds, il s’assied, nous nous asseyons, ils s’asseyent. The modern: je m’assois, tu t’assois, il s’assoit, nous nous assoyons, ils s’assoient. Style guides lean assieds; daily speech leans assois; every French speaker mixes them and none can tell you the rule they use. The imperative — the form you’ll actually hear — favours the classic: asseyez-vous ! (do sit down), assieds-toi ! The futur inherits both moods (je m’assiérai / m’assoirai); the past settles the argument by avoiding it: je me suis assis(e) — reflexive, être, agreement — one form, no debate.
As a reflexive, s’asseoir distinguishes the ACTION from the state: je m’assieds (I sit down — the movement) vs je suis assis (I am seated — the result, plain être + adjective-participle). English hides that difference in “sit”; French grammar insists on it, and the assis/debout pair (seated/standing) runs classroom instructions nationwide. The non-reflexive asseoir exists for seating others (asseoir un enfant sur une chaise), and the noun un siège (seat) completes the furniture. Drill the pair honestly: asseyez-vous, je m’assois, je suis assise — invitation, action, state — and either paradigm you favour will sound like the choice it legally is.
Both — s’asseoir has two full conjugations. Assieds is the classic register, assois the everyday one; the imperative asseyez-vous belongs to the first and everyone uses it.
Action vs state: je m’assieds = I sit down (movement); je suis assis(e) = I’m seated (position). The past of the action is je me suis assis(e).
« Asseyez-vous, je vous en prie » — the full courtesy. Casual: assieds-toi ! To offer a seat: « il y a de la place » or a gesture — France accepts both.
polite “please sit down” (vous) = ___ ! (imperative pronominal)
Asseyez-vous
past (f.): elle s’est ___ (agrees, être)
assise
to BE sitting (state) = être ___ (not the action)
assis
je ___ (S’asseoir — present)
m’assieds
tu ___ (S’asseoir — passé composé)
t’es assis(e)
il ___ (S’asseoir — imperfect)
s’asseyait
nous ___ (S’asseoir — future)
nous assiérons
vous ___ (S’asseoir — conditional)
vous assiériez
Go further: Master the present tense — the full beginner guide.
je m’assieds, tu t’assieds, il / elle s’assied, nous nous asseyons, vous vous asseyez, ils / elles s’asseyent. Full charts for every tense are above, each form with audio.
assis(e) — the passé composé is « je me suis assis(e) ». S’asseoir uses être as its auxiliary verb. Because it takes être, the past participle agrees: elle est assise, ils sont assis(e)s.
« je m’assiérai » — the future stem never changes across persons, only the endings do.
to sit down. It is one of the essential French verbs — drill the present first, then the passé composé; those two tenses carry most conversations.
Games built from this exact page — turn what you just read into play:
« s’asseoir » at every CEFR level — the tense, its forms and the mechanic that makes it stick. Practise it with the free games →