Using "in" and "on"
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Using "in" and "on"
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
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
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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'.
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'.
Last edited by fluffyhamster on Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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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.
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.
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