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| stehen/stellen,
liegen/legen, hängen/hängen, sitzen/setzen |
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Summary
- Stehen,
liegen, hängen (describing where something is hanging)
and sitzen are strong (irregular) verbs that describe where
something is located (standing, lying, hanging, sitting) (==>Wo?),
and therefore take the dative with two-way prepositions.
- Stellen,
legen, hängen (describing where you hang something)
and setzen are weak (regular) verbs that are used when a person
or thing is moved (==>Wohin?) into a new location and therefore
take the accusative with two-way prepositions. In practice, this
means forming sentences with two accusatives, which is unusual: the object
being moved is the direct object of the verb and therefore in the accusative,
and the place to which the object is being moved will be in the accusative
also, since it will be the object of a two-way preposition and motion is involved.
- Stehen/stellen,
liegen/legen, hängen/hängen and sitzen/setzen are almost
always used in conjunction with two-way prepositions. As usual with
two-way prepositions, you can remember location ==> dative; motion ==>
accusative.
- There are more
such pairs (e.g. sinken/senken; verschwinden [=to disappear]/verschwenden
[=to waste] etc.), but they are less common (and not closely associated with
two-way prepositions), so here we will focus on these four.
- See the usage
notes below for information on the distinction
between stehen/stellen and liegen/legen, information on when
to use sitzen/setzen, and information on using tun
or stecken and sein when none of the above verbs is appropriate
for describing where something is being put or where something is located.
Examples
| stehen,
stand, gestanden |
to
stand, to be situated |
| stellen,
stellte, gestellt |
to
put (in a standing position) |
| Die
Büste von Mozart steht auf dem Bett (dative: location). |
The
bust of Mozart is standing on the bed. |
| Ich
stelle die Büste (accusative: direct object) auf das Klavier
(accusative: motion). |
I
put (stand) the bust on the piano. |
| Eine
Mumie stand mitten in ihrem Wohnzimmer (dative: location). |
A
mummy stood in the middle of her living room. |
| Sie
stellte die Mumie (accusative: direct object) in die Ecke (accusative:
motion). |
She
put (stood) the mummy in the corner. |
| liegen,
lag, gelegen |
to
lie, be situated |
| legen,
legte, gelegt |
to
put (in a lying position) |
| Das
Besteck liegt in der Badewanne (dative: location). |
The
silverware is lying in the bathtub. |
| Du
legst das Besteck (accusative: direct object) auf den Tisch (accusative:
motion). |
You
put (laid) the silverware on the table. |
| Eine
Schlange hat auf dem Boden (dative: location) gelegen. |
A
snake was lying on the floor. |
| Wir
haben die Schlange (accusative: direct object) in das Bett (accusative:
motion) unseres RAs gelegt. |
We
put (laid) the snake in our RA's bed. |
| hängen,
hing, gehangen |
to
be hanging |
| hängen,
hängte, gehängt |
to
hang (something/someone) |
| Ein
Bild von den Backstreet Boys hängt im Schlafzimmer (dative:
location). |
A
picture of the Backstreet Boys is hanging in the bedroom. |
| Du
hängst das Bild (accusative: direct object) über die
Toilette (accusative: motion). |
You
hang the picture above the toilet. |
| Der
Kronleuchter hat im Keller (dative: location) gehangen. |
The
chandelier was hanging in the basement. |
| Wir
haben den Kronleuchter (accusative: direct object) ins Wohnzimmer
(accusative: motion) gehängt. |
We
hung the chandelier in the living room. |
| sitzen,
saß, gesessen |
to
be sitting |
| (sich)
setzen, setzte, gesetzt |
to
sit (down) |
| Wir
saßen auf dem Esstisch (dative: location). |
We
were sitting on the dining room table. |
| Wir
setzten uns (accusative: direct object) auf die Stühle (accusative:
motion). |
We
sat down on the chairs. |
| Ich
habe auf Lassie (dative: location) gesessen. |
I
was sitting on Lassie [bad of me!]. |
| Ich
habe mich (accusative: direct object) auf Flipper (accusative:
motion) gesetzt. |
I
sat down on Flipper [worse...]. |
Usage
Notes
stehen/stellen
vs. liegen/legen vs. sitzen/setzen
- stehen/stellen
is usually used for things that can be regarded as standing on a firm base:
| plates,
statues, people and animals who are standing, drinking glasses, bottles,
buckets, vases, etc. |
- liegen/legen
is usually used for anything else that is not sitting or hanging, especially
'floppy' things:
| silverware,
newspapers, snakes, people and animals who are lying down, eyeglasses,
vases (or bottles or drinking glasses etc.) that have fallen over, etc. |
- sitzen/setzen,
unlike the English "to set," can only be used with things that have knees
and can thus actually sit:
| people,
dolls and puppets, and certain animals, but not, for example, worms,
fish, or inanimate objects other than dolls and puppets. |
- If a book is
standing or being stood vertically (e.g. in a bookshelf), you would use stehen/stellen;
if it is lying or being laid flat (e.g. on a coffee table), you would use
liegen/legen. Similarly, for bottles standing or being stood
on their base (or even on their mouths), you would use stehen/stellen;
if they are lying around or being laid on their sides (e.g. on the floor),
you would use liegen/legen.
- More examples:
| Die
Bücher liegen auf dem Tisch (dative: location). |
The
books are lying on the table. |
| Wir
stellen die Bücher (accusative: direct object) ins Regal (accusative:
motion). |
We
put the books on the shelf. |
| Mein
Bruce Springsteen Poster lag auf dem Boden (dative: location). |
My
Bruce Springsteen poster was lying on the floor. |
| Ich
hing es (accusative: direct object) über mein Bett (accusative:
motion). |
I
hung it above my bed. |
| Das
Baby hat auf dem Fernseher (dative: location) gesessen. |
The
baby was sitting on the TV. |
| Du
hast es (accusative: direct object) ins Bett (accusative: motion)
gelegt. |
You
put it to bed (laid it in the bed). |
Tun,
stecken and sein
- Often, when
you are describing where you are putting something, especially if you are
putting something inside something else, none of the above verbs
will be appropriate. For example, if you are putting a handkerchief
in your purse, neither stellen nor legen describes what you
are doing, and hängen and setzen are obviously inapplicable.
In these cases, you should use the verbs tun or stecken.
Tun has the widest range of applications, whereas stecken can
only be used in situations where you could use "stick" in English,
as in "I stuck it in my pocket" or "Stick that under the bed."
Occasionally, stecken must be used instead of tun (see the last
two examples below). The following are some examples of situations where
you need to use tun or stecken in this way, because stellen,
legen, hängen and setzen are all inapplicable:
| Ich
tue/stecke mein Taschentuch in meine Tasche. |
I
put my handkerchief in my pocket. |
| Ich
tue/stecke die Flaschen ins Recycling. [Could possibly use legen
or stellen here depending on how you place the bottles in the bin.] |
I
put the bottles into the recycling bin. |
| Hast
du die Bücher in deinen Rucksack getan/gesteckt? |
Did
you put the books in your backpack? |
| Sie
tat/steckte den Schlüssel ins Schloss. |
She
put the key in the lock. |
| Ich musste
schnell aufräumen, also hab ich einfach alles unters Bett getan/gesteckt. |
I
had to clean up quickly, so I just put everything under the bed. |
Meine
Eltern haben mich in ein Internat getan/gesteckt.
[A more positive formulation: "...haben mich auf ein Internat geschickt."] |
My
parents stuck me in a boarding school. [vs the more positive formulation
"...sent me to a boarding school."] |
"Es
funktioniert nicht!" -- "Haben Sie den Stecker in die Steckdose getan/gesteckt? |
Did
you put the plug in the outlet? |
- Tun
can be used more generally as an informal substitute for stellen
and legen and occasionally setzen, whereas stecken can
only be used in situations where you could use "stick" in English,
as in "I stuck it in my pocket" or "Stick that under the bed."
| Sie
können Ihre Hausaufgaben in mein Fach tun/stecken/legen. |
You
can put your homework in my box. [With stecken, it
would mean "You can stick your homework in my box."] |
Bitte
tu/steck/leg das Besteck auf den Tisch. |
Please
put the silverware on the table. |
Ich
habe einen Zettel auf Ihren Schreibtisch getan/gesteckt/gelegt. |
I
put a note on your desk. |
| Wo
hast du die Schlüssel hingetan/ hingesteckt/hingelegt? |
Where
did you put the keys? [With stecken, it would mean
"Where did you stick the keys?"] |
| Wir
haben das Kind ins Bett getan/gesteckt/ gelegt. |
We
put the child to bed. [With stecken, it would mean "We stuck
the child in bed."] |
| Ich
habe das Buch unters Bett getan/gesteckt/ gelegt. |
I
put the book under my bed. [With stecken, it would
mean "I stuck the book under my bed."] |
- Finally, if
you are trying to describe where something is located and stehen,
liegen, hängen and sitzen are all inapplicable, you can of
course always just use sein, as in the examples below. In some
cases, you can also use stecken for this purpose, and again this usually
give the sentence an informal tone. You can also generally substitute
sein for stehen, liegen and setzen (but not usually
for hängen) if you don't mind losing a little specificity (though
your instructor may not always let you do this on tests, if s/he wants to
test your ability to use stehen, liegen and setzen!).
| Das
Taschentuch ist/steckt in meiner Tasche. |
The
handkerchief is in my pocket. |
| Die
Flaschen sind im Recycling. [Could possibly use liegen or
stehen here depending on how the bottles are positioned in the
bin.] |
The
bottles are in the recycling bin. |
| Waren
die Bücher in deinem Rucksack? |
Were
the books in your backpack? |
| Der
Schlüssel war/steckte im Schloss. |
The
key was in the lock. |
| Das Kind
ist/liegt im Bett. |
The
child is/is lying in bed. |
Das
Bild ist/hängt an der Wand. |
The
picture is hanging on the wall. |
| Der
Eimer war/stand in der Garage. |
The
bucket was/was standing in the garage. |
| Der Schlüssel
steckt. |
[Idiomatic
expression for:] The key is in the lock. |
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