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[Chojin]

George Carlin shows us why prepositions in English are awesome.

 

[lilraylewis]

I am an English teacher. The English language is completely idiotic.

I think you should find a new job.

They place considerable importance on something

Which preposition to use is occasionally idiomatic, there are no bulletproof rules for which preposition is appropriate.

Spot on.

OP, the next time you're unsure of which preposition to use, try using Google with quotation marks. Not 100% accurate, but often helpful. For example, the phrase "put importance in" returned 156,000 results whereas "place importance on" returned 1, 090,000. For even more accuracy, create a custom search that includes only reputable English-language sources (e.g., nytimes.com).

 

[Barsinister]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfExXGMX2JM

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

Never mind I read that wrong, I thought it said relations, not ratings. I feel like a doof. "In" is right.

Honestly, if this is really a concern go pick up a copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style. It's a slim book and it's all about questions like this.

Strunk and White is outdated shit. It's good if you have no prior exposure to grammatical style, but following it to the tee just does not work in modern English.

 

[Tesseract]

foreign ratings is conceptual

 

[Korey]

You say "on the" when you ride something

 

[RagnarokX]

I would say whether you use in or on in your example depends on how you word the rest of the sentence:

"they put a considerable amount of importance in foreign ratings."

"they placed a considerable amount of importance on foreign ratings."

I would use the second one.

Actually, thinking over it, the first one is most likely wrong. You wouldn't put importance in something. Put in implies something that changes the quality of what is affecting it; for example: "Put effort into it."

 

[zeemumu]

I use "on" because, to me, "importance" is interchangeable with "emphasis" in this case.

 

[ihearthawthats]

I guess I wouldn't think twice if someone said those, but I'd personally always use "on" when referring to a bus transportation.

I would definitely think twice. Never heard anyone say those seriously and I'm not even sure if the posters sincerely use it or just trying to illustrate their point.

 

[sqwarlock]

This thread reminds me of one of my favorite Carlin quotes:

About this time, someone is telling you to get on the plane. "Get on the plane. Get on the plane." I say, "fuck you, I'm getting IN the plane! IN the plane! Let Evil Knievel get ON the plane! I'll be in here with you folks in uniform! There seems to be less WIND in here!"

It's really an either/or scenario as far as I'm concerned.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I'm on a boat.

 

[daizydoesit]

I have the same exact problem with German and Japanese. Ehh a few mistakes are ok. At least you know the language

 

[Pyrokai]

One could also say "I'm inside the bus"

Either works, and they both make sense. I think "on" is just the most common one used, and therefore is then one that sounds the least strange to the ear. Nothing more. Prepositions are often interchangeable.

And now that I think about it, "on the bus" probably doesn't make that much sense. If something is on the bus, it would be on top of the roof of the bus . "In the bus" implies you're actually inside where the seats are located. Think of it as "in the cabinet" vs "on the cabinet".

 

[keuja]

It's Crazy buttock on a train, not Crazy buttock in a train.

 

[Deleted member 231381]

One could also say "I'm inside the bus"

Either works, and they both make sense. I think "on" is just the most common one used, and therefore is then one that sounds the least strange to the ear. Nothing more. Prepositions are often interchangeable.

And now that I think about it, "on the bus" probably doesn't make that much sense. If something is on the bus, it would be on top of the roof of the bus . "In the bus" implies you're actually inside where the seats are located. Think of it as "in the cabinet" vs "on the cabinet".

Inside the bus makes it sound like someone locked you in the boot.

 

[encephalon]

Maybe I'm pulling this out of my ass, but saying "on the bus" seems to somehow imply that you're riding the bus. "In the bus" sounds like ... you're "within the bus" as opposed to outside of it or somewhere else. "On" implying riding some sort of transport also seems to work for boats and trains. Yet at the same time, we don't say "I'm on the/a car" when riding in a car, or anything.

 

[RagnarokX]

One could also say "I'm inside the bus"

Either works, and they both make sense. I think "on" is just the most common one used, and therefore is then one that sounds the least strange to the ear. Nothing more. Prepositions are often interchangeable.

And now that I think about it, "on the bus" probably doesn't make that much sense. If something is on the bus, it would be on top of the roof of the bus . "In the bus" implies you're actually inside where the seats are located. Think of it as "in the cabinet" vs "on the cabinet".

Nobody would use "inside the bus". "On" seems to be used for most modes of transportation that are not cars/trucks.

You ride on buses, trains, planes, boats, bikes, etc
You ride in cars, trucks, vans, jeeps, etc

 

[Aeana]

Maybe I'm pulling this out of my ass, but saying "on the bus" seems to somehow imply that you're riding the bus. "In the bus" sounds like ... you're "within the bus" as opposed to outside of it or somewhere else. "On" implying riding some sort of transport also seems to work for boats and trains. Yet at the same time, we don't say "I'm on the/a car" when riding in a car, or anything.

Not just riding. For example, if you forget your wallet, you left it "in the car," but you left it "on the plane" or "on the bus."

 

[Why would you do that?]

I remember when my Spanish professor told the class that in Spanish, "on" and "in" are no different from one another, I was pretty amazed. On and in are somehow two very different words, yet the subject of a lot of confusion, so I thought it was neat. (Though a part of me now wonders if it is partially due to other languages' prepositions...)

 

[Des0lar]

I am an English teacher. The English language is completely idiotic.

Yes it is. Especially pronounciation is terrible.

I think you should find a new job.

Not really, if you know what is wrong about something you often can be more critical about it.

 

[crozier]

OP, the next time you're unsure of which preposition to use, try using Google with quotation marks. Not 100% accurate, but often helpful. For example, the phrase "put importance in" returned 156,000 results whereas "place importance on" returned 1, 090,000. For even more accuracy, create a custom search that includes only reputable English-language sources (e.g., nytimes.com).

Quoted because this is excellent advice.

 

[Valkyria]

I remember when my Spanish professor told the class that in Spanish, "on" and "in" are no different from one another, I was pretty amazed. On and in are somehow two very different words, yet the subject of a lot of confusion, so I thought it was neat. (Though a part of me now wonders if it is partially due to other languages' prepositions...)

Yes, and it is a nightmare to use "in" or "on" for me. I end up using them according to what I read or hear not because it actually makes sense to me XD.

 

[Ahasverus]

I remember when my Spanish professor told the class that in Spanish, "on" and "in" are no different from one another, I was pretty amazed. On and in are somehow two very different words, yet the subject of a lot of confusion, so I thought it was neat. (Though a part of me now wonders if it is partially due to other languages' prepositions...)

The thing is that spanish has another word for "on" meaning "on top of something" which is "sobre" (which also means "over" in a spatial context). Any sense of location of a subject is said by "en" (that means what you know, "on" and "in"), you're "en el avión" (on the airplane) and "En el ascensor" (in the elevator) or "en un mal día" (on a bad day) or "en la casa" (in the house). If you're talking about the cup on the table then you say "el vaso sobre la mesa".

I think the craziest difference for an english speaker would be "ser and estar" (to be).

 

[NinjaTehFish]

Not just riding. For example, if you forget your wallet, you left it "in the car," but you left it "on the plane" or "on the bus."

It occurs to me "On" is used in the context of mass transport (buses/planes) whereas "In" is reserved for private transport taxi/car.

On the submarine.
In the helicopter.


Or as my mum just pointed out: On is used when your onboard something eg: Onboard a plane/boat/train

 

[Deleted member 1235]

you could also use 'into'

I think you have to get the 'feel' of it. which is the worst thing any student of another language wants to hear. Prepositions in English are one of the tricky bits I think (in an otherwise pretty easy language).

Not sure if it's still there but some of the official signs at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam which is huge and very English aware (dutch is usually in smaller letters under the larger english signs) were all titled 'Welcome AT Schiphol'. Always made me smile for some reason.

The thing is that spanish has another word for "on" meaning "on top of something" which is "sobre" (which also means "over" in a spatial context). Any sense of location of a subject is said by "en" (that means what you know, "on" and "in"), you're "en el avión" (on the airplane) and "En el ascensor" (in the elevator) or "en un mal día" (on a bad day) or "en la casa" (in the house). If you're talking about the cup on the table then you say "el vaso sobre la mesa".

I think the craziest difference for an english speaker would be "ser and estar" (to be).

I'm learning spanish at the moment and the bolded is a bit of a mind bender, I can only really get my head around it by thinking of them as 'is always' and 'is currently'

my peruvian wife who speaks very good english still quite often tells me that something is 'in the table' as well.

 

[Lonewolf_92]

I consider myself to be a fluent speaker of English (not native, though), but every now and then I find myself making (sometimes very obvious) mistakes when using prepositions (in, on, at, etc.).

I've been trying to find a flawless way of figuring out when to use a certain preposition, but when you've got cases that make no evident sense such as "in the taxi" vs. "on the bus", it's hard to form a collection of rules for the use of prepositions.

This has always been hard for me because in my mother tongue the same word is used for in, on, and sometimes at (if you want to be specific about the position of an object, you use what would translate to "on top of" or "inside of").

For example, just now I was writing a paragraph and I wrote

"they put a considerable amount of importance in foreign ratings," (I know you can word this in a different way, I'm just using this as an example)

but then I paused and thought

"isn't it 'to put importance on something'?" -- and I realized that I just didn't know for sure either way (by the way, if someone can clarify this specific case for me, it would be appreciated).

Fellow GAFers, is this one of those situations where you just have to memorize which word to use on a case-by-case basis, or are there specific rules I'm failing to understand?

In the case of the "in the taxi" vs. "on the bus" quandary, I think "on" is mainly used for mass transit (ships, planes, trains, buses) while it's "in" for private vehicles (including cabs). "I'm on the bus to Fairview" or "I'm on a ship bound for Borneo" compared to "I'm in Rick's truck" or "I'm in a cab on 42nd street".

As a native speaker of English I can tell you that the language has it's little twists. I think a lot of it comes from it's exposure to (and adoption of parts of) other languages, as well as evolution/corruption as it spread and time passed. Compare the speech of a rural Irishman, a rural American Southerner, a person from London, and a person from Chicago sometime, just the accents alone might make conversation between the four nearly impossible even though they're speaking the same language. There is already even slight variations between written British English and American English, and major differences in some commonly used words ("tap" versus "faucet" and "flashlight" versus "torch" for example). In other words, don't sweat the small stuff.