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saszka2
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question
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While teaching my students I came across the following sentence in their workbook "What happened at the factory?"
One of my students asked why it was "at the factory" and not "in the factory".
Does anybody know why???
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21 Feb 2011
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Bella29UMM
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"in" and "at" are both used for the same purpose when talking about closed places
example:
in the museum
at the museum
in fact I think is more common to use "at"
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21 Feb 2011
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nacerfor
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I think that the action happened near the factory and not inside the factory that �s why they used "at" instead of "in". |
21 Feb 2011
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kmochniak
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"IN" is used to denote that something happened inside the factory building, whereas "AT" means factory more as an institution, it is simply a broader term. It could happen inside the building as well as outside. I think both prepositions can be used interchangeably here.
Tell me if I �m wrong.
Hugs,
KAsia |
21 Feb 2011
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almaz
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The question refers to the business as well as the physical location. Not necessarily, as Nasro says, �inside � the factory. Compare it with �what happened at school today? �. |
21 Feb 2011
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Apodo
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This is the way �at � is commonly used.
I work at/in a bank, at/in a factory.
Where were you today? I was at work, at school, at home, at the shop.
If we want to know about an event that happened, we ask; What happened at the factory, at school.
I agree with Bella �at � is probably more commonly used than �in � for this type of question/sentence.
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22 Feb 2011
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thedropper
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I think �in � refers to one �s physical location in relation to the building, either �inside � or �outside � the building. �at � is a more general term that refers to the location which includes the building and it �s surrounding grounds. Because events can happen �inside � or �outside � a location �at � is generally used to describe the whole institution including the surrounding grounds. As you get more specific in telling the story of "what happened" it is likely you will change the preposition to be more specific therefore using �in � or �out �.
I hope this helps! |
22 Feb 2011
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