How to say sitting, kneeling and squatting in Spanish

This blog post teaches how to say sitting in Spanish. You will also learn how to say kneeling in Spanish and how to say squatting in Spanish and of course you will learn how to say I am on my knees in Spanish. .

As I mentioned in another blog post, recently, I recorded some podcasts with a Spanish instructor here in Colombia.

During the podcast, she mentioned a common mistake in Spanish that English speakers make. Here’s the mistake that she mentioned during the recording of the podcast:

How To Say Sitting In Spanish

Estoy sentando esperando el bus. (INCORRECT) Estoy sentado esperando el bus. (CORRECT) I am sitting waiting for the bus. (Literally, I am ‘seated’ waiting for the bus.) Native English speakers have a tendency to make this mistake in Spanish because in English we use the progressive tense and say “I am SITTING waiting for the bus,” instead of “I am SEATED waiting for the bus.”

But a literal translation of what I Spanish speaker would say is “I am SEATED waiting for the bus.” (Estoy sentado esperando el bus.)

By the way, I know that many Spanish courses teach that the Spanish word “autobús” means the English word “bus.” But in Colombia, and many other Spanish speaking countries, the Spanish word for bus” is “bus.” Of course, you pronounce “bus” as if the vowel “u” is the Spanish vowel “u” and not the English vowel “u.”

While we are on the topic of “sitting,” here’s a related word or phrase . . . How to say, “I am kneeling” or “I am on my knees.” I can think of two ways to say that:

How To Say I am on my knees In Spanish or How To Say I am Kneeling in Spanish

Estoy de rodillas.

I am on my knees.

Estoy arrodillado.

I am kneeling.

***Avoid the English speaker’s common ERROR of using the progressive tense when saying “I am kneeling” by saying “Estoy arrodillando” (INCORRECT). The correct phrase is, “Estoy arrodillado” (I am kneeling). But literally, “I am KNEELED.”

And here’s how you say “squat” in Spanish. By the way, I am NOT talking about “squat” as in “diddly squat.” I am referring to squatting as in “sitting in a crouching position.”

Estoy en cuclillas.
I am squatting.

Usted está en cuclillas.

You are squatting.

By the way, the phrase “diddly squat” can be translated as “nada” in Spanish:

Tú no sabes nada.

You don’t know diddly squat.

How To Say Squats in Spanish

And if you are referring to the weight-lifting exercise, the word for “squats” is “sentadillas.”

¿Cuántas sentadillas debes hacer?

How many squats should you do?

How to say sitting in Spanish?

16 Comments

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