My house is “at” the side of the road. But it’s “on” Doxxing Myself road. But I live “at” 123 Doxxing Myself Road. And Doxxing Myself Road is “in” White Picket Fencia. English is dumb.

Why don’t I live at 123 DM Road at white picket fencia at the side of the road at the country I live in at earth?

  • blobjim [he/him]English
    1•2 days ago

    Here’s my guesswork for how they generally get used: “at” is for a specific location that could be represented as a point, usually when you’re inside or at the edge of it, where it doesn’t matter what part of it you’re actually at, usually in the context of travel or giving directions. “on” is more for certain things that are large, where you’re not trying to be specific, probably when you’re literally on top of something or using it. In is when you’re literally inside the bounds of something, but again it’s relatively unspecific.

    You can’t use at when a thing has too large of borders. You can’t use on when you’re not on top of it. You can’t use in when the thing doesn’t have defined.

    But I guess really it’s like you’ve said. The meaning of each preposition is specific to the noun it is paired with.