Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

I�m trying to put a sentence in Japanese into English. Here are three sentences I have made.
( Shonan is a non-official place or area name for a beach or a coast along Sagami Bay in Japan. )

1. The sea at Shonan is beautiful in the evening.
2. The sea on Shonan is beautiful in the evening.
3. The sea along Shonan is beautiful in the evening.
4. The sea by Shonan is beautiful in the evening.

I am not sure which of the four above is good and natural English. Could you help me?

[IanT]

"At" sounds best to me.

Best wishes,
Ian
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[Tao]

Sentences 1, 3, & 4 are all fine.
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TAO

[fw]

Thank you for your replies, IanT and Tao.

Both are very interesting answers for me.

I appreciate your help.

[Ian Coldwell]

I disagree quite strongly with Tao:

Only "at" is possible here, with this wording.

The preposition "at" is used to refer to general position, and Shonan is a general location.

If it were re-worded you could use either along or by as well as at:

The sea along the Shonan coastline ....
The sea by the Shonan coastline ...
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[Tao]

1, 3, & 4 are still appropriate. They are natural and good English. Where would this beach be but along a coastline...
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TAO

[Ian Coldwell]

Tao,

I see your point, but only if the audience is aware that Shonan is a beach.
We know it is a beach. I wanted to show how to use the prepositions in the case that the audience may not know what Shonan is.
OK?
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We want to show and encourage others how to effectively improve their language acquisition to enable better communication www.learnenglishlanguagewell.com