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Teo Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

sitting on/in a chair

0 What's the difference in meaning between01i00 sitting in a chair02i00 and00 01i00sitting on a chair02i00? 0-
  

Top answer

0 They are both correct. com for "sitting on a chair"02br 02br 00 which shows that the first is to be preferred. " It's sort of a Zen question: When does something02br 00 become a chair?

— Marius Hancu

  • 0 They are both correct.
  • com for "sitting on a chair"02br 02br 00 which shows that the first is to be preferred.
  • " It's sort of a Zen question: When does something02br 00 become a chair?
  • asp
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18 Answers
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0 They are both correct. See at the New York Times:02br
02br
01font00 305 from nytimes.com for "sitting in a chair"02font02br
00 68 from nytimes.com for "sitting on a chair"02br
02br
00 which shows that the first is to be preferred. 02br
02br
00 IMO:02br
02br
01fo
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0 This is a chair you would sit 'on'. 0-
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0This is a chair you would sit 'in'.0-
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0 Hi,02br
00Nona, is there really that difference? You sit 01u01i00in02i02u00 the chair in your second post (an armchair), can't I also sit 01u01i00in02i02u00 the chair in your first post? 02br
00I thought "in" was more common to refer to both kinds of chairs, but I suspect there could be some dif
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0I like Nona's examples a lot. The first one has no "in." The second one embraces you, sucks you in. If you were nine months pregnant, getting out of the second chair (notice, I didn't say "up from") would probably require the assistance of another person.0-
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0Hi,02br
02br
00I'd say that in speech, 'on' would be much more common than 'in'.02br
02br
00However, a person is not likely to say things like 'Would you like to sit 01i00on this chair02i00?' Instead, one would more usually say something like ''Would you like to sit 01i00here02i00?' or 'Would you like this cha
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0 Ah, interesting. I thought it was more common to say "sitting in a chair" than "sitting on a chair".02br
00I did the same as Marius, some searches on Google, and I found out that "in" seems to be more common on the net... how strange...02br
00Anyway, thanks for the info.0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Teo12cite10What's the difference in meaning between11i10 sitting in a chair12i10 and10 11i10sitting on a chair12i10?12blockquote
11b01font00My mental images immediately upon reading the original post were just about what Nona po
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0Hi again,02br
02br
00I think that you have to be careful in interpreting Google results. People don't always write the way that they speak.02br
02br
00In addition, I think that when people sit, they are usually in/on a chair, so they would tend not to mention 'a chair'. They'd often just say things like 'When I came into the room, she was sitting down', r
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0 Nona, Your illustrations were perfect! CJ0-
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