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,
;-)
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,
;-)
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.
I agree that "on a list" is what I would generally expect people to use.
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.
renan torres-riveroAnd, what if it's not written on a piece of paper? Let's say, in a file of a computer system or database?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.
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 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.
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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
;-)
"On" in number four is tied to the expression "list of priorities," and I have only ever heard it expressed "on my/her/his list of priorities."
The comments from all of you are really of great value to me.
Thank you very much
;-)
The above is correct because of the verb, and "in" is a verb dependant preposition, meaning that the preposition "in" will always have to be used with this specific verb. You might want to check "dependent prepositions + verb / ".
You should use "on" if you want to say that you are writing "on" a piece of paper
However, the paper is not the list. The list itself refers to a set or items. Let me also pose a different situation.
What if the list is a soft copy. In this case, 'on' (based on the reason that one writes on a piece of paper) is not fully correct. 'in' would seem more fitting.
Please share your thoughts on this.
Thanks