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missdaredevil
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 1670
Location: Ask me
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 Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:10 pm Post subject: on/along |
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A man visits his doctor, complaining of a sharp pain *along* his neck.
Can I replace it with *on* instead? |
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Bob S.
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Posts: 1767
Location: So. Cal
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| Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 12:03 pm Post subject: Re: on/along the neck |
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| missdaredevil wrote: |
A man visits his doctor, complaining of a sharp pain *along* his neck.
Can I replace it with *on* instead? |
Replacing the preposition would change the context.
A pain on his neck implies some kind of sore or wound spot on the skin of his neck.
A pain in his neck implies a spot of pain underneath the skin, possibly in the muscle, bone, or connecting tissue.
A pain along his neck implies a long length of pain, possibly a long cut on the outside or an entire neck muscle that is sore.
BTW, a pain in the neck = something that is troublesome or causes stress. e.g. My little brother always follows me around bugging me. He's a real pain in the neck. |
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river1974
Joined: 20 May 2003
Posts: 525
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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A man visits his doctor, complaining of a sharp pain *along* his neck.
If I replace *along* with *through*, would the meaning of this sentence be changed? |
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