Help me, please

  • I I have to do some tests, but I'm completely confused in two tasks !!!!!! Help me, please!!!!
    1.There is a cupboard ____ right of the dinner table.
    A. on B. in C. at D. to
    2. I visit my Granny _____ day – on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
    A. every other B each other C all other D this and the other

    I'm at a loss! In the first task, in my opinion, both options are acceptable : on \ to , but the answer is only one !!!
    The second task for me is a solid puzzle)))))))))))))))))

  • 1.There is a cupboard ____the right of the dinner table.
    A. on

    2. I visit my Granny _____ day – on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
    A. every other

  • Thanks a lot for your answer! But in my task there's no any article and it confuses me.
    I know the expressions "on the left" and "on the right," but in them there's an article! Can these expressions be used without the article?

  • I' ve found some examples: There is a vase to the right of the chair. \ To the right of the dining-table there is a sideboard with two drawers in it. To the right of the table, there is a big wall unit with a wardrobe and different shelves. Are they correct? Prepositions of the place are terrible )))))))))))))))))))))

  • I would be grateful for your reply!

  • That there is no article must not confuse you. There are a lot of mistakes in such tests, and this may well be one of them. That is one of the reasons why I do not favour doing these tests. I used to find some mistakes, point them out to those who made decisions, the people agreed with me but did nothing to correct the mistakes identified. How do you expect me to treat such tasks after all that?

    Back to the task now. To my mind, both ON and TO prepositions are quite possible here. We can say ON THE RIGHT OF THE DINNER TABLE and TO THE RIGHT OF THE DINNER TABLE. In the possible answers they should have given ONLY one of these prepositions, not TWO as they did. I still think that there may be a slight difference in usages. If we speak about a person who is СПРАВА ОТ ВАС, we say either The person is on my right or The person is to the right of me. Note that there is NOTHING FOLLOWING "on my right" while there is OF ME following "to the right".
    If we look at the original example, we see that RIGHT OF is followed by "of the dinner table". So, to avoid any misunderstanding and mistakes, I would now say "There is a cupboard __to__ right of the dinner table".
    It also fully agrees with what you wrote in your post of May 12, 2017 (time 09:39).

    Can these expressions be used without the article?---Frankly, I have never come acroos such cases.

    Prepositions of place are terrible---Not only them. All English prepositions are a terrible thing. Their use cannot be explained. You either know them or not. You just have to learn them by heart.

    I would like to cite you a couple of interesting cases. How would you say Повернуть ручку НА 90 градусов? Положить деньги В банк? Проехать НА красный свет? Пройти ЧЕРЕЗ дорогу? Пройти Через лес?

  • Thanks for the detailed answer ! I fully agree that the task was not compiled properly.
    After some hard thinking, I also chose TO. I'd done it before I read your reply)))))) I'm glad I made the right conclusions.

    As for your interesting cases, they didn't seem difficult to me. Do not see it as a bragging)))))))))))))))))))).
    1. Not quite clear the phrase Пройти ЧЕРЕЗ дорогу. Maybe you meant ПЕРЕЙТИ ДОРОГУ - cross the road
    2. Пройти Через лес - go through the forest ( wood)
    3. Положить деньги В банк - to deposit money with a bank. But once I heard: I've deposited money IN Wells Fargo bank ( in some American movie) So, to my mind, both variants are possible.
    4. Проехать НА красный свет - drive through a red light
    5.Повернуть ручку НА 90 градусов - turn the knob 90 degrees ( to the right \ left ) - no preposition))))
    - rotate the lever 90 degrees
    I hope I did everything right.))))

  • No, you did not.
    Back to point No.1. By Пройти ЧЕРЕЗ дорогу I really meant ПЕРЕЙТИ ДОРОГУ. I wrote as I did just to give you an idea of a preposition. You chose to say the same without a preposition. I do not claim that your version is wrong. I just wanted you to use a preposition, which you did not.

    Now to point No.5. A preposition must be used here but you have failed to find the correct one. So this question remains open. I still want you to think hard and give me the right preposition in this collocation.

    3. Положить деньги В банк - to deposit money with a bank. But once I heard: I've deposited money IN Wells Fargo bank ( in some American movie) So, to my mind, both variants are possible. ---To me American English is not something to follow as an example. I prefer to ignoire it because they either oversimplify things or try to revise the language, which I do not like at all.

    Here is one more interesting expression. How would you say "У меня нормальное кровяное давление---120 НА 80". As in all the previous cases I am mainly interested in translating the preposition НА.

    And, to crown it all, just one more example. What would be the English for " Это случилось не ПО его вине".

  • 5.Повернуть ручку НА 90 градусов - 5. turn the knob through 90 degrees. I from the outset wanted to use the preposition

    through

    , but I chanced upon the collocation without the preposition and it seemed to me very laconic. I overlooked that you insisted on the use of prepositions.

    turn the knob 90 degrees

    - Can we omit the preposition in this collocation?
    1. walk ( go ) across the road
    3.to deposit money with a bank - Is it OK?

    "У меня нормальное кровяное давление---120 НА 80". - I've got a normal blood pressure - 120 over 80
    " Это случилось не ПО его вине". - It happened through no fault of his (own).
    I would like to thank you for the excellent opportunity to pull up my English.

  • 5.Повернуть ручку НА 90 градусов - 5. turn the knob through 90 degrees. I from the outset wanted to use the preposition

    through

    ---Well done. Now you arte absolutely correct.---Naturally, you can do this collocation without a preposition but we talked about prepositions, so I wanted to find out your understanding of a prepositional use in it.

    - Can we omit the preposition in this collocation?
    1. walk ( go ) across the road
    3.to deposit money with a bank - Is it OK?

    ---No.1 is correct as well. We use ACROSS. You have already hintedf at that when you said "We crossed the road". The stem of the two words )cross and across) is the same.
    No.3 is perfectly OK.
    I do not think that we can omit the preposition. How do you propose to do it?

    "У меня нормальное кровяное давление---120 НА 80". - I've got a normal blood pressure - 120 over 80

    ---And again you are absolutely right. The only correct preposition here is OVER. although many experienced translators used to write and say 120 BY 80.

    " Это случилось не ПО его вине". - It happened through no fault of his (own).

    ---Again the choice is absolutely correct, though it can also be said that " He is not to blame for what happened".

    I would like to thank you for the excellent opportunity to pull up my English.

    ---The pleasure is mine.---