"at" or " in"

Question

Dear all,I will no take it amiss even if you tell me in my face that I am a fool.This sentence is from a book. My doubt about "at my face " or "in my face" or "by my face"Thank you.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

May we see the entire sentence please?

Cool Breeze · Answer

wisdom27I will no take it amiss even if you tell me in my face that I am a fool.

"May we see the entire sentence please?"

The poster gave the sentence all right. I would like to know what book it is from.

CB

BarbaraPA · Answer

I need to stop working on the forum from my phone!

Tell me to my face.

Wisdom27 · Answer

This is from a Spoken English book in my language (English –Malayalam). I saw this sentence in the part of “Idioms” “take amiss” with example sentence. The author was an English scholar in my language and he was the editor in many English daily in India. But he is no more. In my knowledge “on face” “at face” but from your words I understand that it is correct preposition in this sentence. I have learned so many things from his book and have seen many new things. eg. “I reserve my gratitude” instead of saying “thanks” The author explains, sometimes we can’t just say “thanks” we have to keep in our heart. In that situation we have to say “I reserve my gratitude”. He wrote the explanation in my mother tongue. I just translated in English. I have never heard from anywhere “I reserve my gratitude” Can we use this?
Thank you.

Cool Breeze · Answer

I will not take...

As you have been told, to my face is right. I have never heard I reserve my gratitude used the way you describe.

CB

Deadrat · Answer

The expression "reserve my gratitude" is not common in English, but fortunately, it's not idiomatic either. So we may find its meaning from a literal interpretation. I find three:

The first takes its meaning from the meaning of "reserve" as "to hold in abeyance." For example, "I know that I am in your debt, but I will reserve my gratitude until you treat me with respect." No respect; no gratitude.
The second takes its meaning from the meaning of "reserve" as "to hold apart": "I am grateful to my colleagues for their help in the publication of this book, but I reserve my deepest gratitude to my wife, without whose unstinting support, I could never have completed the manuscript."
The third is a combination of the two and incorporates both meanings as well as the example you gave: "I dedicate this book to my teacher and mentor, who died before its publication. I can no longer express my feelings to him, but I reserve my gratitude for him in my heart." In this case, it's impossible for the author to express his gratitude to someone no longer among the living, but he will keep that feeling for his mentor inside himself.

"at" or " in"

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