Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[dido4]

Q:What prepositions are available in the sentence? What different meaning do they have?

The bird is in the tree.
The bird is on the tree.
The bird is at the tree.

Thank you

[2006]

"The bird is in the tree." is what is usually said.

"......at the tree." is not said, but you can say ".....by the tree".

I wouldn't say "The bird is on the tree" unless the bird is right on the highest part of the tree.
In that case, I would say something like 'Look, the bird is right there, on the very top of the tree'. It would make sense to use "on" in that situation because the bird isn't in the tree. The bird is outside the tree, on the top of the tree.

You can say The bird is on (the)(that) branch.