Why do you sit my seat?

[Two children were quarrelling in a classrom (Summer course)]

Student A: Hey! This is my my seat. Why do you sit my seat?
Student B: This seat isn't reserved by you. I've come first. I can sit any seat I like?

I was wondering if the above dialogues are natural English.

Thanks for your help.

It probably is for children, depending on their ages. It is not, however, grammatically correct.

Winwin2011 said:

[Two children were quarrelling in a classrom (Summer course)]

Student A: Hey! This is my my seat. Why are you sitting in my seat?
Student B: This seat isn't reserved for you. I got here first. I can sit in any seat I like!

I was wondering if the above dialogue is natural English.

Thanks for your help.

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Note: "reserved for you" is pretty fancy talk for a kid.

charliedeut said:

It probably is for children, depending on their ages. It is not, however, grammatically correct.

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Thanks charliedeut

If they were adults, how do you correct their English?

See Barb's post (#3) :up:

Barb_D said:

Note: "reserved for you" is pretty fancy talk for a kid.

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Thanks Barb_D.

How does " fancy talk " mean? I googled it but I couldn't find the meaning.

Winwin2011 said:

Thanks Barb_D.

[STRIKE]How [/STRIKE] What does " fancy talk " mean? I googled it but I couldn't find the meaning.

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Let me google that for you (first result). :up:

not a teacher

I feel that the first result of charlie's link to a definition of "fancy talk" is not what Barb_D intended. That is, it's not to do with boastfulness.
She meant that the phrase "This seat isn't reserved for you" is more sophisticated than one would usually expect from a child in this context.

JMurray said:

not a teacher

I feel that the first result of charlie's link to a definition of "fancy talk" is not what Barb_D intended. That is, it's not to do with boastfulness.
She meant that the phrase "This seat isn't reserved for you" is more sophisticated than one would usually expect from a child in this context.

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Fair enough.

Winwin2011 said:

Thanks charliedeut

If they were adults, how do you correct their English?

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The biggest problem here is that you are trying to make "sit" transitive, that is, to have it take a direct object.

It isn't in this use.

You do not "sit my seat." You "sit in my seat."

Winwin2011 said:

[Two children were quarrelling in a classrom (Summer course)]

Student A: Hey! This is my my seat. Why do you sit my seat?
Student B: This seat isn't reserved by you. I've come first. I can sit any seat I like?

I was wondering if the above dialogues are natural English.

Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

It's not the kind of dialogue you would expect adults to have but if it were kids, it should be:

Student A: Hey, that's my seat! Why are you sitting in my seat?
Student B: It's not your seat. I got here first. I can sit anywhere I like.

In the unlikely event of it being a dialogue between adults (perhaps on a train/plane where you get a seat number):

Person A: Excuse me, I think you're in my seat. My ticket says I'm in 3A.
Person B: Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I misread my ticket. I'm supposed to be in 4A. I'll just move my things.
Person A: Thanks.

emsr2d2 said:

In the unlikely event of it being a dialogue between adults (perhaps on a train/plane where you get a seat number):

Person A: Excuse me, I think you're in my seat. My ticket says I'm in 3A.
Person B: Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I misread my ticket. I'm supposed to be in 4A. I'll just move my things.
Person A: Thanks.

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This would be so unless both had the same seat (a practice called overbooking, methinks). That would lead to a somewhat more heated argument! :bad-word:

charliedeut said:

This would be so unless both had the same seat (a practice called overbooking, methinks). That would lead to a somewhat more heated argument! :bad-word:

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It would indeed but hopefully the argument would be with the [strike]idiot[/strike] employee/computer operative who double-booked the seat, rather than with each other!

charliedeut said:

This would be so unless both had the same seat (a practice called overbooking, methinks). That would lead to a somewhat more heated argument! :bad-word:

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Airlines overbook flights, but they only give out seat assignments to one person. If both had the same seat on a boarding pass, that would be a real error.