Question about 'in' and 'at'

Question

Hi Teachers,Are these two sentences correct? If yes, do they mean the same?a) They are at the Nelson's house.b) They are in the Nelson's house.Thanks in advance

Regards · Accepted Answer

Hi,

The nouns house and home are usually preceded by at when we wish to indicate one's presence there.

Also, when we're talking about our presence at our home, we omit at.

They are home (at their home).

They are at Nelson's house.

They are at the Nelsons' house.

Regards

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi,

Thank you for your reply and help.

Best,

TS

Imantaghavi · Answer

Hi Regards,

How about "in"? I think it's correct,too.

Regards,

Iman

BarbaraPA · Answer

"In" refers specifically to the interior. If you are "at" your friend's house, you can be on the patio, playing the yard, playing backetball in the driveway, etc.

If you simply want to know someone's general location, we usually say "at" someone's house.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Either "at" or "in" are both correct. At my house- is almost considered a fixed phrase as far as human contexts goes.

You can use "In my house" for non-human contexts i.e. I hate spiders, potatoe buys and ants; guess what, they are all in my house!

Imantaghavi · Answer

Thank you Grammar Geek for your time.

But how about airplane?

"In" OR "at" OR both?

Thank you in advance,

Iman

Imantaghavi · Answer

Thank you dimsumexpress very much but do you mean "in" is totally wrong for human beings?

Regards,

Iman

Dimsumexpress · Answer

imantaghaviThank you dimsumexpress very much but do you mean "in" is totally wrong for human beings?
Regards,

Iman

This is where blanket statement sometimes leads us astray into the grey area. I understand learners have to rely on book references to retrieve meaings of a phrase of a word, and it workd 99.9% of the time. However, I'd like to point out there is always that .1 % of English which falls into the "unkown territory" of grammar. That is called "context". Context is the essence of a sentence; without it, verbs, adjectives and nouns are just phrases and fragments.

The core meaning is there between these two sentences: They are at my house vs they are in my house

Without further context, we can only rely on what sounds idiomatic which is "At".

Having said that, I wouldn't say "in" is totally wrong, but I would say it's not what most native would say from an idiomatic point of view. As I commented in the earlier post, the "insect" reference is for sure correct.

Aside from the question, as a former learner, I'd like to share this thought with all current learners which is, for us to learn and use English naturally, we need to train ourselves to develop a sense of full-context understanding in relationship to our question, because a broader context can expend our perception of how natives use the phrases or a particular word. I know it's easier said than done. But it is entirely possible. I hope this two cents worth helps.

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi dimsumexpress,

Thank you for such a detailed explanation about 'context'.

The two cents were really helpful.

If you have more cents I could be a 'bank' for you with these matters.

Best,

TS

Dimsumexpress · Answer

I always keep a jar of pennies around but they are not worth much these days. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/98.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/98.gif' alt='Emotion: rofl'/>  It's good to feel a sense of humor around here!

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