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#162132 10/05/06 06:52 PM
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You can be on a river without it being frozen.Yes, many possibilities with on in at. What do you say f.i.when you are in a boat? On the river? At the river? Is a boat sailing on the sea or at sea? When talking of sailors one says: they are at sea? We say 'op zee', 'on sea.'(that's the confusing thing) The song says: Sailing on the river on a Sunday afternoon. But a sailor is at sea.

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Helen, thanks for this clear lay-out of the waterways round New York.
Yet, when the world was young in 1979 I remember standing at the bank of the Hudson river (right in New York, west side), packed with drift-ice. And indeed it hurried amazingly fast towards the river mouth.Fascinating.
That must have been a special cold winter.Temperatures lower than I had ever experienced at home.

#162134 10/10/06 06:48 PM
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Prepositions are funny things, Bran. Not only do they vary from language to language, but also within English itself: In the US you live on Main Street; in the UK you live in it.

#162135 10/10/06 07:24 PM
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Z
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and we get on a plane but in a car.

#162136 10/10/06 07:56 PM
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Yes, they are AnnaS. We here live in a steet, on a Square or Lane (both of nobler substance) and on or at a quay (waterworld). Wish they had one preposition for all.

#162137 10/10/06 09:04 PM
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> Wish they had one preposition for all.


where would be the fun in that?


formerly known as etaoin...
#162138 10/11/06 08:19 AM
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It is fun in? Not at or on? Sure? Are you making fun of me? And people can have fun at something. You're right! They are fun! We would f.i. miss the fun of this thread.
We say fly with the plane. Just as illogical as on a plane. In it seems most logic.
OK. They stay. And it is for us foreigners to make the mistakes.

#162139 10/11/06 09:39 AM
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> Are you making fun of me?

nope. with you.


formerly known as etaoin...
#162140 10/11/06 10:12 AM
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happy end to the argument.

#162141 10/11/06 12:50 PM
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Quote:

happy end to the argument.




no argument there.


formerly known as etaoin...
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