Prepositions: "in" vs. "of"

Forums: Grammar, Esl, English
Email this Topic • Print this Page

I know "in" is used to show place / location (e.g. I am in my house)
and "of" is used to show that something belongs to / is connected to something else (e.g. The president of America).

However, I'm wondering about these examples:

The students (in / of) my class are noisy.

The teachers (in / of) ABC School are kind.

The people (in / of) in Japan were devastated by the earthquake.

The staff (in / of) Starbucks are friendly.

I think I know the answer, but I don't know why - what is the rule? Or can both "in" and "of" be correct in certain cases?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 2,558 • Replies: 3

No top replies

@ESLgirl,

Golly ESL, with training in journ and a lifetime writing I never had asked myself that

When you say "in" you usually mean contained by some specific physical body such as a classroom whereas "of" is more general implying a "spreading" so to speak, as in the case of a school or the Japanese and Starbuckians

Somebody else will probably provide technical grammatical terms

0 Replies

@ESLgirl,

The students (in / of) my class are noisy.

Both okay, 'in' more common.

The teachers (in / of) ABC School are kind.

First choice 'at'; other two would work.

The people (in / of) in Japan were devastated by the earthquake.

Both work.

The staff (in / of) Starbucks are friendly.

First choice 'at'. Other two would work.

If there was greater context, it would probably help.

0 Replies

@ESLgirl,

I would say...
in my class.
in ABC school.
of Japan
in/of starbucks - depending on context. In would be a particular store, of would be company wide.

0 Replies

Prepositions: "in" vs. "of"

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know