"In" or "of" in a sentence

Question

Dear teachers,I heard this phrase on TV but not sure if "in" or "of" it was meant for.  (Could you also correct this question sentence for me?  Thank you.)"This is the last stop of the journey, thank you for riding with us.  Please mind the gap in / of the plateform"Regards,Tinanam

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

... mind the gap in the platform.

Question:
I heard this phrase on TV, but I'm not sure if it was "in" or "of". Which one should it be?

CJ

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hi CalifJim,

Thank you for your help.

Would "mind the gap of the platform" have different meaning?

Regards,

Tinanam

CalifJim · Answer

tinanam0102Would "mind the gap of the platform" have different meaning?

No. It just strikes a native speaker as the remark of someone who is poor in English. gap in is the idiomatic combination here. gap of introduces, for example, a measurement of distance, thus: There's a gap of six inches in the platform.

CJ

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hello CalifJim,

Thanks for your explanation. I understand my problem with this question now.

Could I ask if the following "in" and "of" usages are correct, which I hope they won't give you the wrinkles this time?

1. George used to have a statue on the mental of his apartment. ( Could "in" be natural?)

2. I ran into you the other day in your hallway, in your building. (If the comma is removed, should "in" be replaced by "of", so it would be "in the hallway of your building"?)

3. Customer Service Representatives should update selling rate every month in Selling Rate in Main System. (Hi CalifJim, this Main System contains Customer Profile, Purchase Order, Selling Rate and Billing. Should "of" be used?)

Thank you very much.

Tinanam

CalifJim · Answer

tinanam0102 I hope they won't give you the wrinkles this time

Too late! Everything gives me wrinkles!

_____________

George used to have a statue on the mental of his apartment. ( Could "in" be natural?)

mantel or mantelpiece (the shelf over a fireplace), not mental (having to do with the mind)! (This one was really funny, though you didn't intend it!)

Only in his apartment sounds natural to me. Not of.
______________

I ran into you the other day in your hallway, in your building. (If the comma is removed, should "in" be replaced by "of", so it would be "in the hallway of your building"?)

... in the hallway of your building. is fine.
... in the hallway in your building. is OK.
... in your hallway in your building. is not great, but passable, with or without a comma.

By the way, you would not likely tell someone you had run into them; they would already know that. For this reason, I would have written: I ran into Joseph the other day ... (or whatever name you like, but not you.)
_______________

Customer Service Representatives should update selling rate every month in Selling Rate in Main System.

Why all the capital letters? I would have written this:

Customer service representatives should update the selling rate in the main system every month.

Not of.

CJ

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hello CalifJim,

Sorry for the "mental" mistake and wrinkles I gave you again. Let me re-work it with no#3.

For the last question, reason I used the capital letters is that the name of the system we use is called "Main system" which then have subfolders, like "Billing", "Selling Rate", etc. So I shouldn't use capital letters to distinguish monthly selling rate and the "Selling Rate" subfolder?

If customer service representatives were to go to main system and to update selling rate in billing instead ( not in selling rate), would "in" still be called for?

>Customer Service Representatives should update selling rate in billing in main system.

Thank you.

Regards,

Tinanam

CalifJim · Answer

tinanam0102For the last question, reason I used the capital letters is that the name of the system we use is called "Main system" which then have subfolders, like "Billing", "Selling Rate", etc. So I shouldn't use capital letters to distinguish monthly selling rate and the "Selling Rate" subfolder?

OK. The subfolders and other computer-related designators can be capitalized. But why capitalize customer service representatives? Those are the people who are expected to do these updates, aren't they? The question of how to phrase this exactly hinges on how sophisticated your representatives are with computers. For computer-savvy users,

Customer service representatives should update Selling Rate in Billing in Main System.

For the less sophisticated,

Customer service representative should update the subfolder Selling Rate in the subfolder Billing in Main System.

Or perhaps,

Customer service representatives should navigate within Main System:

Main System > Billing > Selling Rate

and update Selling Rate.

CJ

P.S. Main System is a very poor choice, in my opinion, for the name of a computer system!

CalifJim · Answer

tinanam0102For the last question, reason I used the capital letters is that the name of the system we use is called "Main system" which then have subfolders, like "Billing", "Selling Rate", etc. So I shouldn't use capital letters to distinguish monthly selling rate and the "Selling Rate" subfolder?

OK. The subfolders and other computer-related designators can be capitalized. But why capitalize customer service representatives? Those are the people who are expected to do these updates, aren't they? The question of how to phrase this exactly hinges on how sophisticated your representatives are with computers. For computer-savvy users,

Customer service representatives should update Selling Rate in Billing in Main System.

For the less sophisticated,

Customer service representatives should update the subfolder Selling Rate in the subfolder Billing in Main System.

Or perhaps,

Customer service representatives should navigate within Main System:

Main System > Billing > Selling Rate

and update Selling Rate.

CJ

P.S. Main System is a very poor choice, in my opinion, for the name of a computer system!

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hi CalifJim,

Thank you very much for showing me three different ways to express the idea.

>And "in" is needed for all three. But for subfolders, wouldn't they part of "Main System"? And can you write "The subfolders of Main System are Billing, Selling Rate,......" or "The subfolders in Main System are Billing, Selling Rate,...."

>I have one more question: "The lock of the cabinet is broken" or "The lock on the cabinet is broken". Because the dictionary says "the leg of the table", does the same thing apply to "lock"?

Thanks again.

Regards,

Tinanam

CalifJim · Answer

tinanam0102And can you write "The subfolders of Main System are Billing, Selling Rate,......" or "The subfolders in Main System are Billing, Selling Rate,.."

You can write either one. Yes.

tinanam0102"The lock of the cabinet is broken" or "The lock on the cabinet is broken"

If these were the only choices, I would certainly choose the second (... lock on the ...). But if I could say it exactly as I wanted to, I'd probably say that the cabinet lock was broken!

CJ

"In" or "of" in a sentence

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