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Hello! This is Emma from mmmEnglish,
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back with another lesson
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on the mmEnglish Youtube channel.
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Now in English, we say
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"The school is on Bay Street."
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Not "The school is at Bay Street."
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"They live at 10 Park Road."
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Not "She lives in 10 Park Road."
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"The museum is in the city."
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Not "The museum is on the city."
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"I live at 300 King Street,
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in an apartment, on the fourth floor."
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These little words can cause lots of headaches
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if English is not your first language.
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They're called prepositions
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and there are lots of them in English.
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In, on, at,
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by, with, for,
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over, under,
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of, to.
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They all help to give information about the time,
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location or direction in your English sentences.
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in, on, at
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and by
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In this lesson,
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we'll take a closer look at these
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small but very common,
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very useful English words.
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And we'll concentrate on how you can use them
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to give information about
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the place or location of something.
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Now, the bad news is
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that there's no clear
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way of knowing which preposition you need to use.
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In fact,
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different prepositions can be used with the same words
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but this can change the meaning of
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your sentence.
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Am I at the car?
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At the location of the car?
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Am I in the car?
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Or am I on the car?
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All of these sentences are okay
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but the meaning is different in each question.
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Most of the time,
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you can't just guess the correct preposition.
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It's not really a good strategy
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to improve your English
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- unless you're a really lucky person!
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The worst way to try and learn prepositions
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is to translate them from your native language.
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This can cause lots of problems.
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Prepositions must be learned in chunks of words
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or called collocations.
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Groups of words that are often used together.
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Like, "In the morning."
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"At night."
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"It depends on... (something)"
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"He's keen on football."
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Learning this way will help you to make
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fewer mistakes with prepositions .
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Instead,
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pay attention to how native speakers
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use these prepositions.
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How are they used in the newspaper articles
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that you read or stories?
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What words are they used with?
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And pay close attention to the general rules
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that I'll teach you in this lesson,
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so that you can make
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the right choices
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when choosing prepositions of place.
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Let's get started with
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"in"
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Now the best way to think about the preposition, "in"
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is being within something
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inside the edges of something.
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So let's start really simply with containers or spaces
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that are enclosed.
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I've got the key in my pocket.
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There's some milk in the fridge.
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She left it in the top drawer.
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There's nothing left in my cup.
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Now, it's easy to think about all of these examples
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as being inside something
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because the edges are really clear.
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You can see inside them.
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There's a clear inside and an outside.
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Right?
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Take our earlier example,
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I'm in the car.
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The car has clear edges,
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I'm definitely inside the edges of the car.
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We can use "in" with buildings or rooms
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and places that can surround a person or an object
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on all sides.
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Can you take a seat in the waiting room please?
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I've left my bag in your office.
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Why don't we have a picnic in the park?
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But there are lots of times when you need to
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use this preposition
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when the edges are less clear.
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So for example,
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with areas or regions or cities and towns.
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I'm filming this video in Spain.
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I grew up in Melbourne.
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Holidaying in France is easy if you speak French!
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Regolisa is a small village in the mountains.
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We're going for a drive in the country.
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Lots of people were swimming in the lake.
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Now, all of these nouns
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have borders or edges,
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even if they're not really obvious or clear.
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We can physically be located
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inside the edges of this space.
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Now when talking about groups of people,
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you can often use "in".
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She works in the finance team,
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surrounded by people.
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He got selected to play in the national team.
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But there's an exception for important high-level groups
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where members are often elected.
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He's on the board.
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Or they're on the committee,
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or on the council.
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We can also use "in" with liquids and other substances
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to show what they contain.
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Careful! There's a lot of chilli in that sauce.
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There's too much sugar in soft drinks.
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Do you have milk in your coffee?
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Now the preposition "on"
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is used to talk about the position of something
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on surfaces
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or things that can be thought-of as surfaces
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like walls or tables.
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My phone is on the table.
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You can see a painting on the wall behind me.
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We live on the fourth floor of the building.
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Can you write it on that piece of paper?
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He's spilled ice cream on his new jumper!
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Now, keep thinking about this idea of
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flat surfaces
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because it includes roads and streets
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and rivers.
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The supermarket is on the corner of Martin Street .
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Nice is on the south coast of France.
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Now the idea of flat surfaces also includes water,
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so rivers, oceans, lakes.
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What's that on the water?
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Floating on the water.
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We'll take you out on the lake,
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- in our boat.
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We'll be on the lake, in our boat.
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Okay, now let's talk about the preposition "at".
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It's used to talk about specific places or points in space.
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Sarah's still at school.
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I'll meet you at the bus stop.
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Turn left at the traffic light.
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Now it's also used with public places and shops.
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For example,
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I studied design at college or school or university.
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Let's meet at the station.
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We have to stop at the supermarket on the way home.
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There was a crazy guy at the library today.
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We also use it with addresses.
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They live at 14 Eagle Road.
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I'll meet you at the corner
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of Beach Street and Park Road.
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I had a coffee at Helen's house.
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At her house, right?
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Careful, not to confuse the preposition with another,
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"with".
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I had a cup of coffee with Helen.
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That means Helen, the person,
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not Helen's house.
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We can use "at" with events.
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We met at a party.
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He's speaking at a conference later this week.
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So in all of these examples,
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the preposition "at" is used to talk about
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specific places or points in space.
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Okay I went through quite a few examples there,
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but let's just stop and review the rules for a minute.
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"At" is one-dimensional.
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Think of a map.
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When you're looking at a map, you're referring to a
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specific place or position in space.
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"On" is more two-dimensional.
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You have a flat surface
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and you're referring to the position of
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something or someone
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in relation to that surface.
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So you're recognising the space around you
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a little more when you're using that preposition.
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Now "in" is the sort of
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three-dimensional preposition.
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So when you use it,
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you need to think about
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the position of something
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in relation to what surrounds it.
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Now of course,
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there are grey areas and many exceptions
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that will make you
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scratch your head and wonder, what?!
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When you hear that expression, "grey areas"
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it means that something is
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unclear.
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It's not black and it's not white,
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it's somewhere in the middle
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but we don't know exactly where
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- it's unclear.
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That's a very common expression.
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Now there are many grey areas for prepositions
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when you're talking about
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the place or the location of something.
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It's on the corner.
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Or it's at the corner.
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These two examples mean almost the same thing.
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The museum is on the south side of the city.
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So this expression, on the south side
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or on the right side
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or on the left side,
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it always uses the preposition "on".
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Your seat is on the left side.
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Now I said before that Nice
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is on the south coast of France
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but Nice is also in the south of France.
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Now there is a difference here
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when we're referring to the flat surface
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and the region or the area.
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So it's that spatial difference.
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On the south coast
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or in the south of France.
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It's a little hard to get your head around, right?
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But France is a space that has edges.
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It's enclosed so we use "in".
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I'll see you at Melanie's house.
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So that's the place right?
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But I'll meet you in the kitchen.
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It's an enclosed room or enclosed space.
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I'll meet you at the corner of Beach Street and Park Road.
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I saw it in the corner of the room.
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So that's an enclosed space, right?
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How about this one?
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Write it on the paper
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in your notebook,
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at the top of the page
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or in the corner.
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We say I'm in the car
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and I'm on the bus or the train.
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So there are also times when you can use
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two different prepositions
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and the meaning is actually really similar
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especially between "at" and "on"
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Sarah's still in school.