THE ART OF SPEAKING AMERICAN ENGLISH (6 page)

Scenario B

A little girl screams that she has seen a mouse running across her living room. Both the girl’s mother and brother make use of the preposition
in
to draw a distinction between
specific areas
at home (a
specific location)
.

Mother:
“It’s
in
the corner!”

The girl’s older brother disinterestedly scoops up the mouse with the morning newspaper and quickly flings the small rodent out an open window.

Older Brother:
“There, now it’s
in
the yard,”

Consider the following overview to aid in the memorization of the basic pattern
“
IN
(general area)
,
at (specific location)
,
In (specific area)
”, preposition
on (a plane)
.

My brother is
IN New York
,
at
Macy’s department store,
on
the fifth floor,
in
the book store
.

VI. Prepositions
in
and
at
As Complimenting/Supporting Expressions Of Location

1. In the following sentence, preposition
at
(
specific location)
is followed by
in (specific area)
.

It is the speaker’s view that
Macy’s
is a
specific location
as any other, such as the Eiffel Tower in France or Tokyo Train Station in Japan, and that the various businesses inside
(
specific areas
),
including the
book shop
,
are not independently owned (owned by Macy’s store itself).

My brother is
at
Macy’s Department Store
in
the book shop
.

2. The preposition
IN
(
enclosure
)
takes on an additional expression of location here, followed by
at
(
specific location
),
and is the reverse of example (
1 P.36
).

It is the speaker’s opinion that Macy’s store is an
enclosure
(warehouse-like structure), which carries a sense similar to the concept of
general area
(Paris Tokyo, etc.). The various businesses inside Macy’s, including the book store, are now viewed as independently owned and therefore, are
specific locations
(
at
)
within an
enclosure
(
in
).

My brother is
IN
Macy’s
at
the book store
.

3. The preposition
IN
(
enclosure
)
is followed by
in
(
specific area
).
It is the speaker’s opinion that Macy’s store is an
enclosure
(warehouse-like structure), and the book store is a
specific area
within that
enclosure
.

My brother is
IN
Macy’s
in
the book store
.

4.
This combination is rarely used. Specific locations (at) are not thought of as one inside the other. Distinctions made between areas inside a specific location are expressed as
specific areas
(
in
)
.

(XX) My brother is
at
Macy’s
at
the book store
.

Important Points To Remember

I. The concepts of
specific location
(
at
) and
enclosure
(
in
) are interchangeable in the case of shopping malls and all other similar locations
.

My brother is
in
the shopping mall
at
Starbucks ←
→
My brother is
at
the shopping mall
in
Starbucks
.

II. A
general location
(
in
)
can be expressed as a
specific location
(
at
)
when
distance
, instead of
location
, is the subject
.

The marathon began in the countryside in a small town, and the runners are
at
Yokohama City. (they have reached the edge of the city)

III. Although the preposition
at
expresses a
specific location
or
point on a plane
(
Discussion 3,
figure 1B
),
at
is additionally used
in a figurative sense
to say that someone/something is
inside
a
specific location
.

Mary is at the supermarket buying groceries. (she is inside the store shopping)

make
,
have
,
tell

In the circle the words
make
,
have
and
tell
individually express essentially the same idea. Outside the circle their very different common definitions are contrasted.

Tell

To accurately assess a condition or situation

1. To hear: When something is evident by sound, such as sickness (a cough, etc.), or anger, happiness, sadness, etc. (tone of voice

I can
tell
you have a sore throat
.

2. To see: When something is evident by sight, such as anger, happiness, and sadness, etc.(facial expressions).

I can
tell
you’re tired
.

3. To smell: When something is evident to the sense of smell (odor, aroma, etc.).

I can
tell
you’ve burnt the roast
.

4. To feel: When something is evident to the sense of touch, such as an injury, the heat of a fever, a child’s cold feet, etc.

I can
tell
how painful the bump on your head must be
.

5. To predict: When the particulars of a situation or condition are evident based on reliable/semi reliable information or data.

I can
tell
this is going to be a good year for the sales department
.

beginning/early, middle/mid, end/late

(T-shape enclosure highlights cases in which preposition
in
is used.)

I. The
time nouns + preposition
in
(
in
the beginning
/
in
the end
),
at top and bottom of the figure in parenthesis, are sometimes interchangeable with the standard phrases listed, but as a matter of nuance normally carry a different meaning or sense of time in how they are used. Note the subtle differences.

The use of the proposition
in
, in the following example (A) places emphasis on condition or situation. In contrast, the preposition
at
in example (B) simply denotes time.

A.
Their relationship was pretty rocky
in the beginning
, but
in the end
, the doomed couple couldn’t have loved each other more as they went down with the Titanic
.

B.
The couple are going to the U.S.
at the beginning of
the year, and to France,
at the end of the year
.

II Although the time clauses in the left column have the same meaning as their corresponding time clauses on the right, only the column on the right can be used to approximate
a person’s age
,
as follows:

A.
The young man is
in
his
early
twenties
.

B.
The elderly man is
in
his
mid
seventies
.

C.
The company president is
in
his
late
forties
.

D.
The popular actress is
in
her
early
to
mid
fifties
.

E.
The well dressed gentleman is
in
his
late
fifties to
early
sixties
.

ago;
in;
after
that/
later/following;
before
that/
preceding

At first glance, the time words here might seem fairly easy to use, and they certainly are if you happen to grow up speaking English as your primary language. For those studying English as a second language, understanding what they mean often does not translate into correctly making use of them in conversational English. Read the example sentences, paying close attention to the direction in which the arrows are pointing in the accompanying diagrams.

In (A), preposition
ago
is used to denote a point of time in the past. In (B), preposition
in
is used to denote a point of time in the future.

A. I went to France a week
ago
.