In place

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Orpheus

#17462 Tue, 30 Dec 03 04:14 PM

There are policies, technical standards and procedures in place to describe how to use and operate machinery and equipment safely.

What does 'in place' in the above sentence exactly mean? Does it mean that the policies, etc are already operational, or what....??

Orpheus

Joined on Tue, Jun 17 2003

Jakarta, Indonesia

Regular Member (570)

'Truth is Subjectivity' - Kierkegaard

Raul

#17469 Tue, 30 Dec 03 05:48 PM

The expression "in place" means "suitable" or "appropriate". The opposite is "out of place".

Hope this helps! Smile [:)]

Raul

Joined on Mon, Sep 1 2003

Lima - Peru

Full Member (221)

"I touch the future: I teach"

Expressions

KLatifZ

#17584 Tue, 30 Dec 03 11:42 PM

Can we change the above sentence to "Policies, technical standards and procedures are in place to describe how to use and operate machinery and equipment safely."?

KLatifZ

Joined on Tue, Dec 30 2003

Vienna, Austria

New Member (20)

ryan smith

#17647 Wed, 31 Dec 03 10:37 AM

Klatifz: Yes, your modification sounds fine.

Orpheus: I think "in place" here means "established". "...procedures are established to..."

ryan smith

Joined on Tue, Sep 9 2003

CLASSIFIED

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Orpheus

#18164 Mon, 05 Jan 04 03:32 AM

Thanks, Raul & Ryan Smile [:)]

Orpheus

pedant

#18427 Wed, 07 Jan 04 06:59 AM

For the record, Ryan is right, and Raul is wrong.

pedant

Joined on Thu, Dec 18 2003

Full Member (104)

Raul

#18490 Wed, 07 Jan 04 07:00 PM

Do you think so? In this particular case, either interpretation is acceptable. As an engineer working with this type of quotes, believe me, you never know what was exactly meant unless you have the whole paragraph at hand. My interpretation of "in place" was not an invetion of mine. Just go and check a dictionary. Sometimes, the literature in English comes from non-native countries, so mistranslations are another problem to be considered.

Cheers.

Raul

Literature, Paragraphs