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I'm writing a book in English. Not my main language, but I'm doing this for fun mostly and love writing in English. I usually find words or descriptions on the internet if I'm not sure how to word something, but now I have to describe a sitting position, and I just can't find anything. It's the position of the girl on the left.

Girls sitting

It has been driving me a bit crazy. Is there any native English speaker out there that can help me describe this posture in such a way that it's easy to visualize for the reader?

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    Sitting position #7 here is called sidesaddle (after the horse position) but I can't find any reference to back this up.
    – Weather Vane
    Oct 22, 2020 at 12:56
  • side-sitting - knees bent, both feet on same side of body.
    – FumbleFingers
    Oct 22, 2020 at 13:04
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    I found that exact same site :) But I've never seen it used that way, I don't want readers to go to Google and find a bunch of pictures about horses (there are no horses in the story :p).
    – Jonathan Smith
    Oct 22, 2020 at 13:04
  • Thanks Monica, that one is better indeed. Question is, if I use it, will people understand it?
    – Jonathan Smith
    Oct 22, 2020 at 13:05
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    @JonathanSmith welcome and please show your research next time, so others don't repeat what you already know. Please read the tour.
    – Weather Vane
    Oct 22, 2020 at 13:16

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Here's a guide to the names of some sitting positions:

sitting positions

However, as a native British English speaker I can tell you that we don't use most of these terms in everyday conversation. We'd likely just say "sat on the floor", and then describe the position, for example, "...cross-legged".

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    So we would say "I sat cross-legged" or "I sat on my heels" or "I sat sideways". The posture indicated in the question isn't shown here.
    – Weather Vane
    Oct 22, 2020 at 13:31
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    As an AmE speaker, I’ve never heard of any of the terms in that image, though I could figure most of them out if I heard them. We simply don’t describe how someone sits often enough for there to be well known terms, aside from “with their legs/ankles crossed”.
    – StephenS
    Oct 22, 2020 at 16:17

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