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OP This is especially for the Americans, since it requires an American English word.
In informal American English, a _________ (9 letters) is someone who is not very intelligent or lucky and who makes a lot of mistakes.
On the other hand, I have a question about prepositions. Do you use "on" or "at" in this sentence :
"My uncle has a shop ____ Hawthorn Road"
I think it's "on", but my friend said "at"
Jess
>Do you use "on" or "at" in this sentence :
"My uncle has a shop ____ Hawthorn Road"
I'd say "on" Harthorn Road
or "in" London
or "at" the crossroads
if that makes any sense.
me too, as 'on' seems less definite as to exact location... for instance, I would say the shop was 'at the north end of X Street', which is quite specific, whereas 'somewhere on Madison Avenue' could be anywhere within those bounds.
tho' I also note this would not always occam the usage: I would say 'on the corner of X & Y', which ipso facto is specific.
While I would say My uncle has a shop in Hawthorn Road. On Hawthorn Road sounds USn to me.
Bingley
Bingley
sounds USn to me
hmm, interesting Mr B - perhpas this is one of my usages that has been degra- er, subtly altered by my American contacts =) I look forward to hearing the other takes on this as they come in.
other takes on this
Slippery thangs them prepositions. I, too, would take on as being an Americanism vs. the Briticism in. As for at, I'd go with that if a specific location is being mentioned, as at the corner of Fifth and Elm or at 107 Madison St.
"on" seems less definite as to exact location... tho' I also note this would not always occam the usage: I would say "on the corner of X & Y", which ipso facto is specific.
My usage would be exactly the same, mav -- but your last part has made me feel a bit uncomfortable with my own usage.
If you asked me whether on the corner of State and Madison is specific, I'd have to say "no": do you mean the northeast corner, the southeast, the northwest or the southwest? (Perhaps as a real-estate lawyer I'm oversensitive on this.) But I'd nonethess use the phrase exactly as mav.
Complicating it further: I'd say at State and Madison but would say on the corner of State and Madison.
FWIW, I mention the A. A. Milne title The House at Pooh Corners.
I'm with Bingley - in the UK we would say:
in Hawthorn road
in London
at the crossroads, on the north east corner.
dxb
schlemiel
in the UK we would say:...
who's this "we", white man? hi, F!
I don't agree it's as straightforward as that. Surely you can recognise the range of legitimate variants like these:
1. "Two cars and a bus collided in the High Street today"
2. "Two cars and a bus collided on the M4 today"
Similarly we could find without surprise these sentences in any UK publication:
3. "Seventeen shops in central Croydon closed last year"
4. "Seventeen shops on Pembury Hill closed last year"
We might find these forms in daily speech:
5. “The car was standing at the corner outside Woolworths”
6. “The woman was standing on the corner outside Woolworths”
I don’t pretend to have any special powers of observation in these matters, but I can certainly observe quite a wide range of options being exercised by English mother-tongue speakers around me – and I am uncertain how dogmatic we can be about what (if any) discriminations are being made.
This is instinctive to most speakers, and we all have I think a range of styles, which have areas of confusion but some general sense of relationships. Personally, I travel in my car to the station, then go on the train into London - I disembark at the station, alighting on the platform.
To my ear, the use of in suggests a complete logical subset – the milk is in the jug. Conversely, the use of on suggests a less detailed relationship – the jug is on the shelf. The use of at suggests a clearly known point in space or time – the shelf is at worktop height.
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