MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—“THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
It’s Monday, and I need some laughter! Not sure about you . . . but if so . . . here you go! 🙂
While learning Arabic in Morocco, we would often have people laugh when we made mistakes in our pronunciation or vocabulary choice.
I would always ask, “Are you laughing WITH me or are you laughing AT me?!”
That small preposition makes a big difference! “WITH” or “AT” changes the entire meaning of the sentence.
Our Moroccan friends would typically say, “Of course we are not laughing AT you! We are laughing WITH you!”
In response, I would say, “I’m so glad that my language learning and language mistakes make you happy. If that’s the only reason I’m here in your country—to spread a little joy—it’s all worth it!”
Tiny, Yet Powerful
As you can see in this instance, prepositions make a huge difference in meaning.
It reminds me of a recent conversation with Vincent at the gym. We were doing our regular work out together, side by side on the elliptical machines. We were sweating—with hearts pumping hard—trying to burn calories and eliminate toxins from our bodies. As usual, Vincent was jamming to music, and I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts.
Suddenly, I noticed that Vincent took out his earplugs.
I took out mine as well and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“My phone just pooped on me,” he said.
I began to laugh out loud, and Vincent didn’t know why.
“Your phone ‘pooped OUT on you.’ It didn’t ‘poop ON you,’” I explained.
Vincent realized at that point what he had said and smiled.
It’s amazing what a difference a tiny word, a small preposition, can make in the meaning of a sentence.
“A bird can ‘poop on you,’ but a phone dies, runs out of battery, and ‘poops OUT on you.’”
BEWARE!
Check out “10 Common Mistakes with Prepositions Made by Learners of English.”
—The Cultural Story-Weaver
MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—“THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
Let’s Weave Cultures!
Think about prepositions like “on, under, out, with, to . . .” What other sentences do you know that change meaning entirely when you add, remove, or change a preposition? Small words can have a lot of importance and meaning. Beware!
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures”! Write about them in the comment box below.
