Help me please!!!!

Question

hello everyone,
For a long time i have not learnt English, thereby a bunch of grammatical rules make me confused. Could you explain for me the following things ?
1. " in late 1974 there were people ON THE BOARD THE SPACE STATION"

---> does it mean :" on the board of the space station"
2. How different between " ON doing st " and "IN doing st " or AT doing st?
3. how to use Prepositions of Place?
for examples : at /on/in the contruction site???
at/in house
is it right to say that In used for large place , On -smaller one, At - just for small one

many Thanks in advance

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

1. " in late 1974 there were people ON THE BOARD THE SPACE STATION"---> does it mean :" on the board of the space station" -- Both are incorrect. It should read '...on board the space station', which means they were inside it.
2. How different between " ON doing st " and "IN doing st " or AT doing st?-- Please give your example sentences; some or all or none of these prepositions could be used in specific sentences.

3. how to use Prepositions of Place? for examples : at /on/in the contruction site? -- As above, any are possible in particular contexts.

at/in house-- These cannot be right without 'the/my'etc.

is it right to say that In used for large place , On -smaller one, At - just for small one-- The general rule is 'in' for a 3-dimensional concept, 'on' for a 2-dimensional concept, and 'at' for a 1-dimensional concept.

Anonymous · Answer

1. "In late 1974 there were people on board the space station." means that there were actually people up in space in that space station. This expression is from maritime parlance: "He's on board the ship."

2. These are quite similar, but there's a very subtle difference, and the usage is slightly different:

"He's an expert on the deciphering coded messages."

"He's an expert in unraveling coded messages."

"He's an expert at breaking codes."

3. "In and at the construction site" are very similar, but there's the subtlest difference between them, and the usage is slightly different:

A: Where's superintendent? He's not in his office.
B: He's at the construction site.

A: Where's the superintendent? We've got a problem.
B: Yes, he got the message about the problem, and he's on the construction site now, looking into it.

The phrase "in the construction site" is not used in English.

The phrase "at house" is not used in English.

The phrase "in house" is only used one set expressions:

"We like to keep everything in house (that is, within the organization, without outsiders knowing anything)."

Mister Micawber · Answer

I think you have a couple of misconmceptions, Anon:

Anonymous"He's an expert at/on/in the deciphering of coded messages."

AnonymousA: Where's superintendent? He's not in his office.B: He's at/on the construction site.A: Where's the superintendent? We've got a problem.B: Yes, he got the message about the problem, and he's at/on the construction site now, looking into it.

Huyenchen · Answer

Many thanks for your quick answer. Im still wondering , why there are no preprosition  between " on the board " and the space station" . In that sentence ,2 compound nouns stand by each other?

Mister Micawber · Answer

'On the board' is not proper English.  'On board' and 'aboard' are both synonyms for 'on board of'.

Huyenchen · Answer

exactly what i mean " on board of ..." why in this sentence there are no " of"...

Mister Micawber · Answer

It is idiomatically optional there, just as it is with 'I jumped off (of) the table'.

Help me please!!!!

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