This is part of the difference between series.
I recently had someone come to my website looking for the difference between sitting and setting. They came across my article on sitting vs. seating, but that didn’t answer their question, despite it being the article that drives the most search traffic to my website.
Because they couldn’t find the answer, they messaged me on Facebook and asked for clarification on the following sentence, whether it should be sitting or setting:
But he has stacks of mail setting unopened on the counter.
This is a bit different from sitting vs. seating. Here’s the difference between the two.
Setting
Seating refers to an action being done to something.
- He was setting the book on the counter.
- They were setting the table for supper.
Sitting
Sitting refers to how one sits.
- The book was sitting on the counter.
- The supper was sitting on the table.
In other words, sitting is what a thing does and setting is what is done to that thing.
So, specific to the sentence the reader sent me, I’d write it as:
But he has stacks of mail sitting unopened on the counter.
or
But he was setting stacks of mail unopened on the counter.
Which words do you confuse? Let me know in the comments below.