Using "in" and "on"

leegleze · Post by **leegleze** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:34 pm

Hi there! I'm teaching resort employees in Mexico. Here, they would use "en" (meaning "in") for just about every situation described below. But in English we don't. Could you please tell me why we use "on" instead of "in" or vice versa in each of the following sentences? Thanks so much for your help! (I have looked for answers on the web, but I can't find anything that deals with this comparison directly.)

We had fun on the beach today.
He's working on the computer.
We visited Grandma on Monday.
I'd like to go swimming on my day off.
She went shopping in Acapulco. (as opposed to: She shopped at the Gap.)
I got a seat on the train to Durango.

If there IS a place on the web where I could find answers to useage problems like these, could you please point me in the right direction? Thanks again!
Roxana

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:58 am

There are several links within the following link:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnengl ... itions.htm

Don't forget that there are also free online versions of learner dictionaries that may offer usage guidance in addition to obviously having lots of examples generally.
http://www.ldoceonline.com/
http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teache ... ?cc=global
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/

But if I find any really succinct stuff (I'll check later today) then I'll let you know.

By the way, I'd perhaps say 'We had fun today at the beach (didn't we!)' rather than 'We had fun on the beach today'.

leegleze · Post by **leegleze** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:03 am

Wow! Thanks for those links! I'll check them out right away!

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:44 am

The first thing to point out to Spanish speakers is that "en" is by no means the equivalent of "in" in English. If anything, I suspect that it's more often "on", statistically. Not that it IS "on". Spanish prepositions really are a very different system altogether.

Then topology helps. Establish, if only for yourself, that "at" is used for treating places as points, "on" for positions on lines or planes, and "in" for being inside objects with three dimensions. After that things (may) begin to fall into place. You walk "across" Manhattan because you are treating it as a line or a plane(i.e you are "on" it at the time), but "through" Manhattan if you are treating it as something you are "in".

Nothing is a perfectly ordered system but if you can see that all prepositions of place are modifications of either "at" (to, away from, past, around etc) or of "on" (off, above, below, over, under, along, across, up, down etc) or of "in" (into, out of, within etc), then you can draw accurate pictures of the deep meaning of prepositons, either for youself or for your students, thus getting away from that bloody cat on the table which makes students wrongly associate "on" with the horizontal. "On" means "either in contact with a line such as a river, border, coast, train route or similar or in contact with any internal or external surface" which is why, for example, I have something on the sole of my shoe, which is both on my foot and on the floor.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:49 pm

Thanks for that, JTT - good post! Saves me having to search for old ones (IIRC there are a few that could be relevant), or worse, write anything myself (I don't actually get very excited about prepositions! Important though they are).

leegleze · Post by **leegleze** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:47 pm

Wonderful explanation! You're so right about that cat ... I\ve been caught in too many "why" questions because of him! Thanks so much.

dave-b · Post by **dave-b** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:19 am

As for the In, On, and At for time, try this:

IN
Years
Months
Seasons
General Time of Day
The afternoon, evening, morning

ON
Days
Dates
July 5th, 2006, March 17th
The weekend

AT
Times
Night