Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[goophy]

Hi,

I just read a book about the alphbet learning for kids. There's a sentence I feel kind of improper, but I am not a native English speaker, so I need help.

It's a picture that two person looked from the outside into a house, of which window pane a dog's front paws were on. The sentence goes like:

What did we see?
We saw a dog in the window.

Is it possible a dog 'in' the window? Or this is a fixed expression?

I found a similar sentence in here (http://www.thegeminiweb.com/babyboomer/?p=2054) , the blogger uses 'in the window' too, I'm really puzzled! How can one be in the window?

[Yoshiyuki]

Hi, Goofy. I think 'in the window' you mentioned refers to the situation where a dog is seen in the range of the window pane, not out of it;Nobody couldn't go into the window that might lead to another world, but you can place beautiful scenery in the window when you take a photo.

[Lorikeet]

It's very common to talk about seeing something in a window. For example:

Officer, I saw a man in the window!
Look at that cute cat in the window.
There are some beautiful clothes in that store window.

There is even an old silly song from 1952 called, "How much is that doggie in the window?"

The first verse is:
"How much is that doggie in the window?
The one with the waggly tail?
How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie's for sale.

Here is one Youtube of it if you can see youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AkLE4X-bbU

(Remember, it's a really really really old song!