renan torres-rivero  +  693211 Wed, 01 Apr 09 03:37 PM Dear "native" teachers, I've always come through preposition problems, but this is quite tricky. I've heard American and British evenly say "in the list" or "on the list". Which is correct? Or both? Take for instance the following: 1) Is your name ON the list? 2) I put your stuff IN the list of things for shopping. Thank you in advance for your clear answers. Cheers, ;-) renan torres-rivero Joined on Sat, Jan 17 2009 Lima - Peru Full Member 114 RENAN TORRES-RIVERO Prepositions, Countries, United States, American

	AlpheccaStars  +  693231 Wed, 01 Apr 09 05:03 PM  I'm American. I always say "on the list" because it is something that I write on a piece of paper. I never write in the paper. AlpheccaStars Joined on Sun, Oct 12 2008 Senior Member 3,508 The pen is mightier than the sword. Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) Countries, United States, American

	renan torres-rivero  +  693235 Wed, 01 Apr 09 05:35 PM Hi Alphy And, what if it's not written on a piece of paper? Let's say, in a file of a computer system or database? And, does this imply that British speakers use "in" with "list" and not "on"? Here more examples: 1. There were some surprising inclusions in the list. 2. Your name comes after mine in the list. 3. To her dismay, her name was not on the list. 4. It did not figure high on her list of priorities. ThanX ;-) renan torres-rivero

	Yankee  +  693279 Wed, 01 Apr 09 07:37 PM I agree that "on a list" is what I would generally expect people to use. renan torres-rivero “And, what if it's not written on a piece of paper? Let's say, in a file of a computer system or database? And, does this imply that British speakers use "in" with "list" and not "on"? Here more examples: 1. There were some surprising inclusions in the list. 2. Your name comes after mine in the list. 3. To her dismay, her name was not on the list. 4. It did not figure high on her list of priorities. ” I would also agree that "in the list" is possible in sentence 2. However, the use of "on" in a sentence like number 2 would not be at all unusual. I imagine that if you wanted to add someone or something to a list in a certain place, and you used a verb such as "insert", then "in" (or "into") would probably be a more likely choice than "on". In addition, I think the use of "in" is a bit dependent on how exactly the speaker is looking at a list. If the speaker is referring to one item among (i.e. "inside of" / "surrounded by" / "embedded in") many, there again the use of "in" might be more likely. I suspect there is a slight usage difference between BE and AmE as regards the usage of "in/on a list", but my guess would be that it is not a huge difference. Yankee Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006 Connecticut, USA Veteran Member 6,491 Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain Regards, Difference Between, Writing, Sentences, Usages

	renan torres-rivero  +  693334 Wed, 01 Apr 09 10:27 PM Dear gentlemen, The comments from all of you are really of great value to me. Thank you very much ;-) renan torres-rivero