Translate

Thursday, February 5, 2015

The Woman Is in Paris--Or Is She on, at, or to Paris? Prepositions: Gotta Love 'em

I don't know a lot about the use of prepositions in non-Latin-based languages, except for English, of course, but I'd say learning the correct usage of those tiny, but powerful words is among the biggest challenges for learning to speak grammatically.

Are we in the restaurant or at the restaurant?  In a sense, we're both, no?  In English we'd be more apt to say we're at the restaurant:  Where are you now?  I'm at the restaurant.  But if I were to say I'm in the restaurant, everyone would understand me--it would just sound a tiny bit odd.  There are situations, though, in which 'in' would work better:  The restaurant was crowded, but I eventually got in.

It just seems that such subtlety makes it almost impossible to be right every time.  If choosing the correct preposition even in ones native language is tricky, then that's doubled or tripled when trying to use them in a language you are trying to learn.

Most language instructors say to lighten up.  Don't let the prospect of misusing a preposition stop you from attempting to speak regularly for practice.  Over time, they'll just come naturally.  I know in English, I hear perfectly educated people using prepositions incorrectly.  I'm sure I do it myself all the time.  This is why it's usually advisable to simply sentence structures as much as possible when you're first learning to speak a language.  If your house is on fire, you may not get the desired reaction if you say:  'My house is at fire.'  Why not just point to yourself and to the house and say:  Fire! if you're not sure what pronoun to use?

I've struggled with preps in French, Italian, and Spanish for years.  There are a few hard and fast rules, but sometimes it's just a matter of memorizing the correct form.  I live on Fifth Avenue, but I live in New York.  Other languages might say 'I live at New York.  Amazing how such little words can be such a big pain in the neck. 

No comments:

Post a Comment