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Stephenlearner Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary

Point to, point at, or point out

Hi,

Suppose my child and I are looking at a picture of a house. There are windows, doors, walls and a chimney upon the house.

If I want my child to tell me where the chimney is in the picture, which one should I use in the following sentence?

Can you point to/at/out the chimney for me?

Thank you in advance.

Stephen
  

Top answer

They're all correct, but I wouldn't use "out" with a small child. "

— Avangi

  • They're all correct, but I wouldn't use "out" with a small child.
  • "
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10 Answers
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They're all correct, but I wouldn't use "out" with a small child. Children tend to prefer "at," but you might want to incourage him to say "to."
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Thank you very much!

Can I put me between point and out/at/to? It is like this:

Can you point me out/at/to the chimney?

Thank you and Merry Christmas to you.

Stephen
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stephenlearnerCan I put me between point and out/at/to? It is like this:
Can you point me out/at/to the chimney?
No. point is not a verb that works like that. You'll need 'for me' at the end like this:

Can you point to the chimney for me?

CJ
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stephenlearnerCan I put me between point and out/at/to? It is like this:
Can you point me out/at/to the chimney?
"Can you point me out the chimney?" works for me.

- A.

Edit. Actually, "Please point me in the right direction" is not unusual, meaning to orient me correctly (sometimes figuratively).

In this sense,
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Thank you, Jim.

Thank you, Avangi.

Stephen
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Actually, I think most people would simply say "Show me the chimney" or "Where is the chimney?" The child will figure out that he needs to point to the picture.
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Thank you khoff.
I agree, "show me ..." or "where is the ..." is more common.
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While all three are correct, there are some subtle differences between them. Typically if the object is within reach we might say "point to", if the object is out of reach, "point at" and if we are speaking about one out of several similar objects, "point out" or also if the object is hard to see, or unknown.

That being said, these are not clear cut rules and any of them would sound OK in
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markinrussia, thank you very much. Your explanation is very good.
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great article...hey i have got some more easy and simple tips for fluent english
http://eteddybear.hubpages.com/hub/five-easy-steps-for-fluent-english-speaking
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