A Little Help No. 2
Welcome to the scenic route! Or welcome back if you’ve been here before. I opted to share another troublesome word issue in today’s post. I’ve catalogued seven in all, so far. If you missed the first one in which I discussed the differences between ‘then’ and ‘than’, you can read that here. Let’s look at another one, shall we?
Sat vs. Set
This one is particularly troubling, it seems. Tons of us get this one mixed up and it’s so easy to do when you’re in a hurry. A correction app might have trouble picking this out when both words are actually spelled correctly. This could be a disaster if a #gammarnazi picks up your work. Yikes!
First, both of these are verbs. But they can also be used as nouns! How can anyone ever make sense of this? One step at a time…
Sat
Let’s look only at ‘sat’ for a bit. It’s the past tense form of the word ‘sit’ and can be used any time something is placed upon something else. The problem comes in with that little phrase ‘can be’ since in some instances, ‘sat’ and ‘set’ seem to be interchangeable. It’s not necessarily the case, and maybe most folks don’t really care about the details. But for those who do, I’ll have more on that later in this post.
‘Sit,’ the present form of ‘sat,’ has 13 intransitive verb uses, 4 transitive verb uses, and 2 noun uses.
To see a comprehensive definition of the verb ‘sit’ you can visit Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary by clicking here.
Set
Now let’s look at the word ‘set’. This one can function as a noun, a verb, or an adjective. Most of the time when I see it misused, it’s in the verb form. I think it’s hard to confuse a noun or adjective for a verb unless you’re new to the English language.
There are many definitions for the word ‘set’ which makes it super understandable when people get confused. For such a small word, it has 25 transitive verb uses, 11 intransitive verb uses, 24 noun uses, and 7 adjective uses. As you can see, the word ‘set’ is in a league all its own.
For a comprehensive definition of the word ‘set’ you can visit Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary by clicking here.
Examples
I think examples are the best way to learn how to use words. And I’ll share with you my own practice, for whatever that’s worth, later on.
Examples of ‘Sat’
She sat for her portrait.
I sat in the closest chair.
The candy bar sat on the shelf, it’s brightly colored wrapper drawing me closer.
The hen sat on her eggs.
The chair sat too close to the edge of the stage.
Examples of ‘Set’
I set the kettle on the stove.
The geode was set up on a high shelf so Timmy couldn’t reach it.
The cameraman set up his gear in a safe place, out of the way of the busy workspace.
The hen set on her eggs.
The stage was set; the actors ready to appear.
The gardener set the seedlings into the ground in neat rows.
You can do anything you set your mind to.
When you set a lit match to kindling, you’ll soon have a warm fire going.
The couple joyously set the date for their wedding.
Am I going to set a record with how many examples I’m sharing here?
Please set the table for supper.
Nana had her hair set at the salon.
Jenny dampened her crocheted potholder and placed it atop the dryer to set the shape.
What I Do
As you can see, using these two terms can present some problems. I try to keep things as simple as possible. And just so you know, my own method is probably not fool-proof, so please keep that in mind.
If the object of the sentence is someone or something that can sit on its own, I usually use the word ‘sat.’
If the object is inanimate, I usually opt for the word ‘set’ because the item must be placed down on a surface. This, however, seems to be one of those interchangeable moments. I just find it makes more logical sense to me to ‘set a kettle on the stove’ rather than ‘sat a kettle on the stove.’
Conclusion
I hope today’s post is helpful to you. I highly recommend looking up these definitions. I found some uses for both words which I hadn’t considered before. I love learning new things! These words aren’t easy to use, but learning how to use them well can make our work that much more enriching for our readers.
I hope you’ll come back on Tuesday for the subscriber only story. Those have been fun for me. I hope others are enjoying them, too. I share them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Friday, I hope to have another word comparison to share with you. I completely forgot to post last Friday.
Until next time…
Keep turning pages.
