nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Why do people say.....

steo87

Why do people say "...did you see what happened on [insert name of TV show here]?" but "did you see what happened in [insert name of film here]?" ?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

sadista

Thats a good one!
Maybe because programmes are ON the telly but movies are usually IN the cinema??

funloving

because you see something IN a film as it's part of the plot and ON tv as telly is the means to spread the info

sorry for my poor english..it's hard to explain it

oztots

I'd use in for both.

Did you see what happened on tuesday in ...?

[Deleted User]

steo87 wrote: »

Why do people say "...did you see what happened on [insert name of TV show here]?" but "did you see what happened in [insert name of film here]?" ?

I would imagine it's a permanence issue. Programmes like Eastenders for example occupy a regular place in people's lives and people therefore use the same sentence structure as referring to a date (what happened on the 5th of September) as days are both individual unique units and permanently recurring events.

However films would be once off events, units unto themselves. People refer to them just as they do to books. In the case of books they are literally referring to something occurring inside that book. In the case of cinema they are referring simply to the individual unit.

Another possible explanation is the venue. The television is simply a fixture of your life and you see things on it. Cinema requires an entry to see something in it. However this is still unsatisfactory because people refer to seeing plays at the theatre. Although it is likely this could come from a tradition of open aired theatre from the Elizabethan period. It's actually a fascinating question.

This is most likely a thoroughly unsatisfactory explanation given it would require a detailed examination of similar usage of the two expressions in other areas to gain a better understanding but meh, it's AH, what did you really expect?

consultech

Deleted User wrote: »

I would imagine it's a permanence issue. Programmes like Eastenders for example occupy a regular place in people's lives and people therefore use the same sentence structure as referring to a date (what happened on the 5th of September) as days are both individual unique units and permanently recurring events.

However films would be once off events, units unto themselves. People refer to them just as they do to books. In the case of books they are literally referring to something occurring inside that book. In the case of cinema they are referring simply to the individual unit.

This is most likely a thoroughly unsatisfactory explanation given it would require a detailed examination of similar usage of the two expressions in other areas to gain a better understanding but meh, it's AH, what did you really expect.

Pretty much what I was gonna write...

Films are one-off points in time, programs are ongoing events.

m3llowship

The one that always got me was

"I am in the car"

"I am on the bus"

Feelgood

How about...

I am in the missus

but

the missus is on me

Weird ones alright...

Owenw

Also, TV programs trailers, continuity announcers and so forth always use the preposition "on":

"And now ON BBC ONE..."
"Previously ON LOST"

whereas films are described as:

"IN theatres now"
"Starring Keanu Reeves IN the Matrix"

etc...

amcalester

m3llowship wrote: »

The one that always got me was

"I am in the car"

"I am on the bus"

I always put that down to a siza issue, there was a thread about it a while ago.

Owenw

Feelgood wrote: »

How about...

I am in the missus

but

the missus is on me

Weird ones alright...

Ah, but could you not also be on the missus?

r3nu4l

Owenw wrote: »

Ah, but could you not also be on the missus?

Yup, it's called being 'on the job'

IpreDictDeatH

Why do we say our number is o85 instead of saying 0(zero)85? Zero is the number and o is the letter. Why do we use a letter when talkng about a number? Do yanks only say zero or somthing?

sadista

IpreDictDeatH wrote: »

Why do we say our number is o85 instead of saying 0(zero)85? Zero is the number and o is the letter. Why do we use a letter when talkng about a number? Do yanks only say zero or somthing?

Cuz were lazy!

john concannon

Perfectionism is clearly on display in this thread

Epic Tissue

steo87 wrote: »

Why do people say "...did you see what happened on [insert name of TV show here]?" but "did you see what happened in [insert name of film here]?" ?

It doesn't really matter:eek:

IpreDictDeatH

john concannon wrote: »

Perfectionism is clearly on display in this thread

Well i think you have to strike a balance between allowing for the evolution of language and having correct rules for grammer etc,..

Stephen Fry's latest podgram (podcast) is all about the gramatical perfectionist. Its a good listen. http://www.stephenfry.com/media/audio/109/series-2-episode-3--language/

ejmaztec

You can be on the toilet in the toilet............................deep.

Feelgood

ejmaztec wrote: »

in the toilet............................deep.

Its not really that deep, about an inch and a half of water...

Creamy Goodness

im on ur thred defacing in ur pointz.

Neamhshuntasach

You get into a car.
You walk onto a bus.

Or could be something to with you having to pay to board the bus. My Da used to be a bus driver years ago and he always said i'm in the bus. I pulled him up on that once and he said it was because he was used to driving it.