NO: Is-ing and am-ing

Question

La fille derrière qui je suis assis est belle. La fille derrière laquelle je suis assis est belle.
"The girl behind whom I'm sitting is beautiful." Should it have been translated "The girl behind whom I sat is beautiful."

Accepted Answer

Hi Stephen,
Je suis assis means, 
I am sitting , or I am sat in the present tense.
The girl behind whom I sat, would use a past tense,
la fille derrière qui/ laquelle j'étais assis.
The verb in this case is,  Être assis , which is the verb Asseoir but in the passive voice....
Hope this helps!

Answer

La fille derrière qui je me suis assis est belle.  The girl behind whom I am sat is beautiful.
La fille derrière laquelle je me suis assis est belle. The girl behind which I am sat is beautiful.
These are my understanding of the text but I'm not a native speaker.
The lesson does not show the verb asseoir in it's reflexive form but I think that it should  --  maybe an expert will comment further.
Regards,
Jim

Answer

Hi StephenI stand to be corrected but....'La fille derrière qui je me suis assis est belle.'  'The girl behind whom I sat is beautiful.' Je me suis assis is the Passé Composé Tense of s'asseoir so it refers to an act of sitting down completed in the past, i.e. usually 'sat' but also more colloquially 'was sitting'.  Je suis assis is the verb être plus the Past Participle of asseoir, meaning I am seated.

Answer

I have noticed that on planes :
Restez assis... 
is translated : 
remain seated ...