THE ART OF SPEAKING AMERICAN ENGLISH (4 page)

4. Words That Contain One
t
Consonant But Follow The Double
t
Pattern

Pronounce the following example words just as if they contained
double t
.
Make sure to stretch the underlined vowels
.

Note: A rare case of the foregoing is the noun
Captain
, usually pronounced with a
t
sound, but in the military has sometimes been colloquially pronounced by sailors
Kapen
, omitting the letter
t
altogether.

5. Exceptions to the Silent Double
t
/Double
d
Consonant Pattern

I. Nouns made from verbs by adding
-ing
(gerunds) are also excluded from the pattern.

II. Words that
begin
with
accented vowels
,
or
contain
accented vowels
preceding Double t /Double d
follow the pattern that applies to words that contain double consonants
ss
,
pp, II
, and so forth (see I.
pg. 21
).

Part II Commonly Misused Words

Expressing Location Using Prepositions
in
,
on
,
at

I. The Basics

Example Sentence:

He/she/they live
in
(
area A
)
on
(planer→
highway B
)
at
(specific location →
4332, etc.)
.

1. The preposition
in
is used when expressing the existence of animate and inanimate objects (human beings, animals, plants, buildings, etc.) within a
general area
(United States, New York, Japan, Tokyo, France, Paris, etc.).

He lived
in
San Diego
in
the University City area for 65 years
.

2. The preposition
on
expresses the location of a person, place or thing
on
a
plane
(the plains of Japan, the Colorado Plateau, a roof, a street, a table, a wall, etc.). Common applications of
on
include expressing where someone or something is on the
surface of an object
that is not necessarily flat [tree branch, landmass (mountain, island), etc.]

He’s lived
on
that mountain most of his life
.

3. The preposition
at
expresses the
specific location
(Macy’s Department Store, Tokyo train station, one’s home, etc.) where something or someone can be found within a
general area
(New York City, Desert, etc.).

He’s lived
at
the villa ever since he bought it in 1968
.

II. Contrasting Prepositions
in
And
on

1. When using the preposition
in
to
indicate location (A), a
general area
(comprised of more than one plane/location) is expressed, such as a mountain range (plural → more than one mountain).

In the same respect, Tokyo is a
general area
made up of many
locations
.
‘He/she is
in
the mountain
s
.’
is an instructive example of this. Perhaps an
easier to understand alternative sentence is ‘He is somewhere among the mountains’
, but not usually used in conversational English to express location in this a case.

2. When using the preposition
on
to indicate location (B), a
single
plane
is expressed, such as
the surface of
a
mountain (singular).

A. He is in (area) the mountain s .	B. He is on (plane) the mountain (land mass/ surface of an object, Continent of Africa, etc).

3. (C) carries a very different sense of location than sentences A and B. When using the preposition
in
to indicate location, and, a
single
plane
is expressed, the subject (person, animal, thing) in the sentence/statement is literally inside the location (store, home, cave, etc.).

C.
He is
in
the mountain
(literally inside the mountain).

III. Contrasting Prepositions
on
And
at

1. (A) The preposition
on
(plane), indicates that the individual (he) is located somewhere on the surface of the mountain (landmass). (B)
at
(a point on a plane →location), indicates the individual (he) is not actually on the plane of the mountain (the mountain being expressed as one
specific location
), but on a different plane somewhere around the base of the mountain. Hence, the idiomatic expression,
Somebody is at the door
(= someone is knocking at the door). For further clarity on the subject, it
can also be said that the individual knocking at the door in this case is
at
a place where two planes meet
.

A. He is on (plane) the mountain .	B. He is at (location) the mountain .