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Coincidence Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Picture/postcard + preposition

Hello,
Could you please help me?

When we are describing a picture or a postcard (as English learners are often asked to do it) should we say:
In the picture/ In the postcard I (can) see ....
But :
Please write your address on the postcard.
Write a few words on the picture.

Is that right?
Thank you.
  

Top answer

Yes, that's right. We say " in the picture we see" when we want to talk about images found within the whole picture. We say "write your address on the postcard" when we talk about adding something on top of the physical postcard.

  • Yes, that's right.
  • We say " in the picture we see" when we want to talk about images found within the whole picture.
  • We say "write your address on the postcard" when we talk about adding something on top of the physical postcard.
  • The last sentence and its use of "on" is somewhat colloquial.
  • ") I hope this helps.
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3 Answers
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Yes, that's right.
We say "in the picture we see" when we want to talk about images found within the whole picture.
We say "write your address on the postcard" when we talk about adding something on top of the physical postcard.
The last sentence and its use of "on" is somewhat colloquial. A more exact use of prepositions would be to say:
"Write a few w
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Thank you.
What I meant by "write sth on the picture" was to write sth physically on the picture (on the surface, e.g. on the photo paper)

So, if I understand well, when we are describing the things presented by a picture, a postacard, etc. we use 'in' : in the picture/postcard I can see four people playing tennis

On the contrary, we write an address on a postcard, we write
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Hi Doctor D,

Could I ask you how yo phrase this question?
Is it correct to end with 'in'? I keep wanting to put 'in' every time I say it out loud. Are these correct?

What is the fastest you ever did that in?
4 minutes is the fastest I've ever managed to do that in.

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