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Manohonor Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

On top

0 Hi, 02br
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00Came across this sentence 'They prepared to watch the performance on top the wall.' 02br
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00Is there a mistake here? 02br
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00I mean why not 'on top OF the wall'? 02br
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00And is it all right to drop OF preposition here? 02br
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00Thanks. 0-
  

Top answer

0 Hello 02br 02br 00[1] "Let's put the skis on the top of the car" (formal) 02br 00[2] "Let's put the skis on top of the car" (less formal than #1) 02br 00[3] "Let's put the skis on top the car" (less formal than #2 : AmE only) 02br 02br 00paco 0-

— Paco2004

  • 0 Hello 02br 02br 00[1] "Let's put the skis on the top of the car" (formal) 02br 00[2] "Let's put the skis on top of the car" (less formal than #1) 02br 00[3] "Let's put the skis on top the car" (less formal than #2 : AmE only) 02br 02br 00paco 0-
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11 Answers
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0 Hello 02br
02br
00[1] "Let's put the skis on the top of the car" (formal) 02br
00[2] "Let's put the skis on top of the car" (less formal than #1) 02br
00[3] "Let's put the skis on top the car" (less formal than #2 : AmE only) 02br
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00paco 0-
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0 There are 926 google hits for "on top the wall", against 15.300 for "on top of the wall". 0-
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0 Paco - "on top the car" is not something Americans would be likely to say. When I read it, I thought maybe it was British! --khoff 0-
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0 Paco, 02br
00I agree with khoff. "on top the car" certainly doesn't sound to me like it's from AmE. 02br
00Jim 0-
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0 Hello Khoff and CJ 02br
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00I'm sorry for it if you are hurt by the message that "on top the ~" is an American usage. I just translated what was written in dictionary. After I read your postings, I surveyed by google the use frequency of "on top the ~" and found it is used very rarely, as Pieanne pointed already. For example, "on top the hill" hit only 986 pages while "o
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0 Okay Paco - I'll have to amend my signature line to indicate that I can only judge what sounds right for American English of the present century! I wasn't in any way hurt by your assertion - I just wanted to let you know that in this case, as in some others we have found, your sources do not always reflect actual current usage. For example, few people would now say "I seat myself to write yo
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0 Not common usage in BrE either. 0-
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0Of course not! It's clearly, "I have beseated myself ..." 05002br
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00(Just kidding!) 010id1
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0 I wonder if it comes from "atop". 02br
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00From Cambridge Learners dict: 02br
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00Definition 02br
00atop 02br
00preposition MAINLY US 02br
00on or at the top of: 0-
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0 Re: 'They prepared to watch the performance on top the wall.' ?? 02br
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00Even if you add "of" to correct it to, 'They prepared to watch the performance on top OF the wall.', what kind of performance can be performed on top of A WALL, may I ask? Not all walls are wide enough like the Great Wall of China, to conduct a perfomance on top of it, or are they? 02br
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