under and below

Question

The cat is under the table.The cat is below the table.Are they the same?

Perfect Stranger · Accepted Answer

You can use them interchangeably on many occasions but in your sentence below sounds weird to my ear... Let's wait for other to leave their comments.

HUBLOT · Answer

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=prepositions-movement

This is part of an online quiz I took just now.

I'm wondering if the "under" version is correct.

Anonymous · Answer

Jenny chiu The cat is under the table.The cat is below the table.Are they the same?

Both mean the same, however, with The cat is under the table adding the implication that the cat and table are vertically aligned with each other.

HUBLOT · Answer

Hi teachers,

http://goo.gl/KzOk3

How much distance is that?

Enoon · Answer

Jenny chiu The cat is under the table.The cat is below the table.Are they the same?

No. There are some strange answers here. Ignore them. Both sentences are plain English, but a cat that is under a table is not below it. OK, it is, but we would never, ever say that.

It would take an unusual circumstance to allow "The cat is below the table". Imagine you and a friend are trying to see a cat in a pile of junk that includes a broken table. You spot the cat and want to tell your friend where to look.

Anonymous · Answer

enoonIt would take an unusual circumstance to allow "The cat is below the table". Imagine you and a friend are trying to see a cat in a pile of junk that includes a broken table. You spot the cat and want to tell your friend where to look.

No. Considering your example, It seems you understand the meaning of the word below as conveying something is covered with something else, hence it's directly below the covering thing. It's not like that. You could be living on the 16th floor and still be able to refer to your neighbour's which is on the 3rd floor as being below yours, and regardless of whether his apartment is directly under your apartment or not.

Enoon · Answer

Anonymous enoonIt would take an unusual circumstance to allow "The cat is below the table". Imagine you and a friend are trying to see a cat in a pile of junk that includes a broken table. You spot the cat and want to tell your friend where to look.No. Considering your example, It seems you understand the meaning of the word below as conveying something is covered with something else, hence it's directly below the covering thing. It's not like that. You could be living on the 16th floor and still be able to refer to your neighbour's which is on the 3rd floor as being below yours, and regardless of whether his apartment is directly under your apartment or not.

I was not as clear as I thought I was being. Sorry. I do not mean that the cat was right under the table on the pile but that he was in a position somewhat lower down in the pile than the table but along a vertical line that crosses them both.

"Below" also works the way you describe, to be sure. But in neither case does it mean "under".

Henry74 · Answer

enoon"Below" also works the way you describe, to be sure. But in neither case does it mean "under".

So, if I may ask, what does it mean exactly?
This has been troubling me for some time.

If your grandmother lives in the apartment below yours, doesn't that mean that her apartment is under yours?
'Under' does sound strange there, but I don't know why.

If something is 2 ft. below the surface of the sea, isn't it also 2 ft. under the surface of the sea?

Thank you
H.

Enoon · Answer

Henry74If your grandmother lives in the apartment below yours, doesn't that mean that her apartment is under yours?'Under' does sound strange there, but I don't know why.

I don't think you are going to get a complete explanation of all the ways the two words are used. English is too big and too flexible for that.

Yes, Grannie's ceiling is your floor if she lives in the apartment below yours, but if you live in an apartment in the northeast corner of the fifteenth floor, and she lives anywhere on any floor from fourteen on down, her apartment is below yours. The article "the" makes all the difference in this case.

Henry74f something is 2 ft. below the surface of the sea, isn't it also 2 ft. under the surface of the sea?

Yes, but things are usually said to be below the surface of the water when they are under the water, not "under the surface" of the water.

Henry74 · Answer

Your comment on 'below the surface of the water' had me thinking, because, on the other hand, I think I can say, faults can be found under the sea, correct?
So I was thinking, maybe can I say that "below" somehow refers to surfaces while "under" to volumes.
The apartment below - the apartment here in the sense of floor.
Below the surface - as you said.
Things on surfaces are also told to be below one another - a line, a paragraph.

Under a heap of clothes - the heap as a mass of clothes.
But if the clothes are neatly arranged, [EDIT: and you wanted to refer to a specific item in the pile] you could also say pick the one below that. Or can you?
Not to mention that we haven't even touched on "beneath" and "underneath". This is all very confusing...

H.

under and below

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