the non-standard use of prepositions; or, why are you saying ‘on’ so much?; or, way to confuse the non-native english speakers, guys
I’ve noticed that there are a number of instances where I use different prepositions when some other people use “on”:
- “on line”: e.g. “Where are you? I’m on line for the movie.” I say that I’m “in line”.
- “on accident”: e.g. “I bought two of the same thing on accident”. I’d say that I’m did that “by accident.”
- “on the…station” [I’ve only heard this once, I think] e.g. “We are now on [the] Civic Center station.” I would say that we are “at the Civic Center station.”
I find it strange that the language hasn’t converged on one usage by this point.