English Prepositions: IN or ON?

528,633 views ・ 2014-07-09

Learn English with Rebecca


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:02
Hi. My name is Rebecca, and today's lesson is about prepositions. Specifically, it's
0
2370
5500
00:07
about the two prepositions: "in" or: "on". Okay? Now, I'm going to give you a useful
1
7870
6809
00:14
tip so that you will know which one to use in certain kinds of situations.
2
14679
5157
00:19
So let's look at the board. Okay, so what you need to decide is: are you talking about
3
19899
7936
00:27
something that is written on paper or are you talking about something represented on
4
27869
7893
00:35
an electronic device, for example? Okay? Let's look at some examples.
5
35762
5496
00:41
You could say, for example: "I read it in a book.", "I saw it in a comic.", "I read
6
41282
7127
00:48
it in the newspaper.", "in a magazine", or: "in an email". Now, even though email is kind
7
48409
11484
00:59
of seen on an electronic device, it is regarded as a letter. And a letter used to be something
8
59899
8454
01:08
that came on paper, and so we still use that expression, "in" when we're talking about
9
68370
5850
01:14
emails. Okay? So things that come on paper or were traditionally on paper are with the
10
74220
6960
01:21
proposition: "in". Now, of course, today, you can find books, and comics, and newspapers,
11
81180
7000
01:28
and magazines which are called ezines, and email online, on computers, and we can read
12
88210
5990
01:34
them on computers. But the preposition is kind of based on the fact that originally,
13
94200
5021
01:39
they were all on paper, so try to think of it in that way and it will help you to decide.
14
99252
5318
01:44
Now, when we look at electronic devices, we use the preposition: "on". So: "He was speaking
15
104570
6850
01:51
on the phone.", "I saw it on TV.", "I read it online", or: "on the net", or: "on the
16
111420
7000
01:58
internet". On my... "I was working on my computer.", "I was working on my laptop.", "I saw it on
17
118510
9270
02:07
my tablet." Or: "I watched the video on engVid." So you can also use "on" when you're talking
18
127780
7752
02:15
about a website. Right? So those are for electronic devices. Okay? And this was paper. So if you've
19
135549
8532
02:24
got that clear in your mind, let's try some examples.
20
144120
4923
02:29
So what would you say here? "__________ our textbook".
21
149254
2767
02:32
I read it "in our textbook" or: "on our textbook"? What do you say? It's written, right, it's
22
152060
7836
02:39
on paper, so: "in our textbook".
23
159930
2972
02:42
"__________ the screen". I saw it... "on the screen". Good.
24
162939
6184
02:49
"__________ the article". I read it... "in the article" or: "in an article".
25
169187
5913
02:55
Okay? Usually article might be in the newspaper or in a journal.
26
175264
4375
02:59
"__________ the poem". "in the poem" or: "on the poem"? "in the poem"
27
179639
5118
03:04
again. Very good.
28
184789
950
03:05
"__________ the journal". "in the journal".
29
185739
4893
03:10
"__________ the radio". "on the radio". Good.
30
190671
6238
03:17
"__________ the letter". "in the letter".
31
197104
4129
03:21
And the last one: "__________ the monitor".
32
201319
1851
03:23
What would you say? "on the monitor". Okay?
33
203170
5318
03:28
So we see, I hope you see how to use the prepositions: "in" and "on". There are many different ways
34
208542
7133
03:35
in which we can use these prepositions, but when we're talking about something paper or
35
215700
3750
03:39
something electronic, you now know what to do and which preposition to use. Okay? If
36
219450
5730
03:45
you'd like some more practice on this, go to our website: www.engvid.com. Thanks very
37
225180
6599
03:51
much for watching. Bye for now.
38
231779
2535

Original video on YouTube.com
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7