sentar
Sentar is a Spanish verb with several related senses centered on the act of placing someone in a seated position or causing someone to sit. In practice, the intransitive sense “to sit down” is expressed with the reflexive form sentarse, as in Me voy a sentar or Me siento. The non-reflexive form sentar is used transitively to seat someone else, for example El maestro sentó a los alumnos.
- Transitive seating: El camarero sentó a la pareja junto a la ventana. La jueza sentó a los
- Reflexive seating (sit down oneself): Después de un largo viaje, decidí sentarme un rato.
- Figurative or idiomatic: Sentar un precedente (establish a precedent); sentar bien/mal (to suit or not suit
- Sentar is often used in contexts of arrangement or placement (seating people, organizing a group) and
- The related verb asentar, with a prefix a-, has senses such as to establish, to settle, or
- Sentarse, the reflexive counterpart meaning to sit down.
- Asentar, a cognate with related meanings of establishment or settlement.
- Sentar cabeza, to settle down; Sentar cátedra, to speak with authority.