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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

'on' an island

0Can somebody please explain why we say 'on' an island and not 'in' an island.02br
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00And in question formation eg: They go to work 01u00by bus.02u02br
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00How 01u00do 02u00they go to work? why do we add the 'do'02br
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00thanks0-
  

Top answer

0 It's true the majority of current English speakers prefer "on an island" to "in an island". But I don't think "in an island" is particularly wrong. 02br 02br 00The second question is a bit tough to answer.

— Paco2004

  • 0 It's true the majority of current English speakers prefer "on an island" to "in an island".
  • But I don't think "in an island" is particularly wrong.
  • 02br 02br 00The second question is a bit tough to answer.
  • ", because they felt some uneasiness about sentences where the subject was preceded by the main verb in a way like "go they".
  • " is established as the only sentence grammatically allowed.
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3 Answers
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0 It's true the majority of current English speakers prefer "on an island" to "in an island". But I don't think "in an island" is particularly wrong. 02br
02br
00The second question is a bit tough to answer. In old days, English speakers said like "How go they to work?" But at the beginning of the 17th century, they invented an auxiliary use of "do" to make interrogative ques
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0I think the use of "do" in questions may have preceded the 17th century. For instance, we find it in the last lines of this sonnet, by Sir Philip Sidney, which probably dates from the late 1570s:02br
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00With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies ! 02br
00How silently, and with how wan a face ! 02br
00What, may it be that even in heavenly
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0Hello02br
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00I'm sorry for that I made a wrong statement about the time people began using "do" in question sentences. OED says as follows.02br
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01font0026. In Interrogative sentences.02font02br
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01font00The periphrastic form with do, did, is now the normal form
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