Which preposition would you use in this particular example?
By UmiNoor
@UmiNoor (4521)
Malaysia
November 7, 2018 7:11pm CST
My daughter told me about an English test she had to sit for when she was in primary school. The question was a fill in the blank question.
My car is ____ the car park.
She said it's "in" but her teacher marked her wrong and said that the correct preposition is "at". What do you think is the correct preposition?
4 people like this
8 responses
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
8 Nov 18
Either works.
"My Car is in the car park" can insinuate that the car is inside of a multi-level parking structure. I mean, it doesn't necessarily insinuate that, but it can. I also feel like the "in" would be used in response to the question "Where is your car?"
Whereas
"My car is at the car park" might be used when explaining something or making a statement. "I'll meet you at the restaurant, my car is at the car park on the corner of 3rd and Broad Street."
I mean, I'm no English major, and my examples could be wrong but they are also the way I would use them as a Native English Speaker.
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@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
8 Nov 18
British and American usage agree! "In" is always used when one is speaking of an enclosed space of some kind, whether it's a multi-storey building or a parking lot. "At" is always used for a location (your example specifies where the car park is and is therefore describing it as a location).
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@UmiNoor (4521)
• Malaysia
12 Nov 18
This is a good explanation for the difference in usage of the two prepositions. In other words, without a context both "in" and "at" can be used to fill the blank in the sentence. It's quite lazy that the teacher set this question for an exam when there are two possible answers.
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@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
8 Nov 18
I would say that your daughter was correct and the teacher was wrong (teachers can be wrong sometimes!). A car park is generally thought of as an enclosure, therefore one usually leaves one's car in a car park. The only time one might refer to it as a location would normally be when one, for example, might be arranging to meet someone at the car park.
Both are technically correct but "in" would be much more usual. There is a very slight difference in meaning between the two prepositions which involves the way in which one is thinking of the 'car park' - as an enclosure where cars may be parked or as a location on the map.
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@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
8 Nov 18
Good answer. At first I thought in and then at but we don't necessarily use the term car park here. We do have parking garages and is say in for those. Maybe the teacher wasn't familiar with car parks, lol.
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@UmiNoor (4521)
• Malaysia
12 Nov 18
Without a context, it's quite difficult to ascertain which preposition to use but like you say, the normal and usual one people might use is "in" but the teacher simply refused to accept my daughter's answer. The thing that really bothered my daughter was that the teacher did seem to be unsure herself when my daughter explained her choice of preposition. That uncertainty in the teacher that caused my daughter to think that the teacher wasn't even sure of the correct answer but yet she refused to accept my daughter's answer and award her the mark that caused her to slip from Grade A to Grade B.
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@UmiNoor (4521)
• Malaysia
8 Nov 18
Both are correct, right? That's what I told my daughter but her teacher insisted that it should be "at" and because of this she lost a mark that made her grade lower that it could have been. It was the mark that decided she got a B instead of an A.
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@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
8 Nov 18
@UmiNoor if this happened recently maybe you could talk with the school principal or headmaster or whatever they are called there about it. Even if they stick with the teachers decision on which was the right answer it should doesn't seem right that it would determine her grade.
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@nawala123 (20871)
• Indonesia
30 Nov 18
my car is eating the car park.
just joke
1 person likes this
@UmiNoor (4521)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 18
@nawala123 In Malaysia, it’s known as tempat meletak kenderaan. Used to. But now, I see some places use Parkir for car park.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
8 Nov 18
I'm not an English major but I've done some editing for a small press and I would take either too. I agree with owl on the specifics of it.
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