Put your money IN where your mouth is.. is this correct?

Question

I know the expression "Put your money where your mouth is." But can I put 'in' between 'money' and 'where'?

The reason why I think this way is that we can omit 'the place' right before 'where', so if we rewrite the sentence,

it can be "Put your money in the place where your mouth is"?? Again if I leave 'the place', would the sentence be

the one that I confuse about?

To confuse myself more, can I say "Put your mouth in (the place) in which your mouth is"?

This has been bothering me for quite a long time now. Could someone answer my question?

Thanks a lot.

Philip · Accepted Answer

I see that you are posting for the first time. Welcome to the forums!

Stay with "put your money where your mouth is", and don't try to change it around. It's basically a fixed phrase.

Sagra · Answer

Hello! I'm a new member, too.

'Put your money where your mouth is' is a fixed expression -- it wouldn't be appropriate to alter it by inserting 'in' or 'in the place'.

Hope this helps!

Shcho23 · Answer

Thanks for the quick reply, as well as welcoming me. And thanks to other replier, too.
I see your points and I'll go by with the expression. But I'm asking this for, let's say, grammar's sake.
So is it possible to alter it the way I did it? (Specifically "Put your mouth in in which your mouth is".)

If that one's not suitable, how about this one: I would like to live in where there is plenty of sunshine.
Is this one grammatically correct?

Thanks a lot.

Avangi · Answer

In both your examples, "where" is a conjunction, and the meaning of "in" is already included, since what follows describes some sort of place.

Perhaps you've picked up the idea from another "W" word, "which." "I'm looking for a place in which there are no taxes." "I'm looking for a place where there are no taxes." "I want to live in a place where there are no taxes." In this case, the "in" is part of a prepositional phrase. we would not say, "I want to live in a place in where there are no taxes." But we'd say, "I want to live in a place in which there are no taxes."

Edit. Yes, I see you've mentioned "in which" in your original post, as well as the prepositional phrase "in the place."

You'd probably love the conjunction, "wherein." "Put your money wherein is your mouth!"

Hmmm. My dictionary says its an adverb.

Shcho23 · Answer

Hi, Avangi.. I really appreciate your help.

I myself would not say "in where" or "in in which" in a sentense, either. That just doesn't seem right.

But I'm still wondering why those sentences are wrong. It's probably my misunderstanding, and I guess maybe I'm wasting my time on an unproductive matter. But I was taught that an antecedent modified by a relative adverb could be omitted. So, in your example "I want to live in a place where there are no taxes", if I think of "a place" as an antecedent rather than a part of a prepositional phrase that forms an adverbial phrase, can't it be omitted leaving "in" intact? Or this omission rule doesn't apply to every case?

One other thing I'd like to add is that can "a place" in a sentence "There is a place where there are no taxes" be omitted, thus "There is where there are no taxes."? ...That doesn't look good to me, either.

Again thanks a lot, and hope you'll move to New Hampshire any time soon

(Sorry, that's the only joke I could make out of this, and I couldn't resist it..Not an american, but have lived in Framingham for about half a year, so know that much.)

Avangi · Answer

Hi,
I'm still stuggling to wake my brain up from my last nap. The cognitive stuff is not working yet, but my memory is okay. I was living in NH when Judd Gregg's daddy was governor - not to mention Sherm Adams. I remember when Sherm got his *** kicked by Ike for accepting a fur coat as a gift while working as Ike's chief of White House staff. (End of career!) And there were four residents in Dixville Notch, who were always the first in the country to have their primary votes counted - all for Ike, of course.

- A.

BarbaraPA · Answer

I'd like to live in a city where spring comes early.

I'd like to live in a city in which spring comes early.

NOT: I'd like to live in a city in where spring comes early.

Does that help?

Anonymous · Answer

"Put your money where your mouth is" is an idiom so it shouldn't probably be changed.  Your grammatical analysis is basically correct, but when quoting an idiom it's always best to simply say it the way it's always been said.  Otherwise, people will notice the change you've made to the time-honored idiom and wonder about it.

Shcho23 · Answer

Thanks for the tip. But what I really want to know is whether I can omit "a city" in "I'd like to live in a city where spring comes early." soley because it is modified by where-clause, which is what I have been taught.

Avangi · Answer

I just scrapped another reply!

A preposition is a functional word which describes the relation of a word which follows it to some other word in the sentence: "in a place," "behind the bush," "up the elevator."

I'd like to live in a ~~city~~ where spring comes early. When you "omit" the word before the "where," why do you also omit the "a"??

Why not, I'd like to live in a where spring comes early. ??

Did you say, "Because the a goes with the city" ??

Ha! So does the in.

But I'm beginning to see your point. I love to fly above the clouds where only eagles dare.

We can drop the article and the noun and keep the preposition. I love to fly above where only eagles dare.

Well, I shot myself in the foot, because it needs to be an essential where-clause, and this one sounds like it should have been non-essential. Okay, if we use "the place" instead of "the clouds," it's essential. ("Essential" is not the right adjective! What is it? "Determining"? Something like that.)

Try this. I never swim beyond ~~the place~~ where I'm sure I can make it back to land. (You can clearly keep the preposition.)

It seems like you can't keep a preposition which puts or takes you in/at/on/to the where you're talking about. It would be redundant.

There must be some qualifications which go with this rule. It would be nice to have them.

Put your money IN where your mouth is.. is this correct?

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