a French Literature class / a class of/on French Literature

Status
Not open for further replies.

englishhobby

Key Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Russian
Home Country
Russian Federation
Current Location
Russian Federation
Are there any proper and natural sentences here?

1) What did you do today in your French Literature class?
2) What
did you do today in your class of French Literature?
3) What
did you do today in your class on French Literature?

And the same with the word "lesson" (with a two-word name of the subject):

4) What did you do today at your French Literature lesson?
5) What
did you do today at your lesson of French Literature?
6) What
did you do today at your lesson on French Literature?
 
Last edited:
1 and 3 are OK. 4 and 6 would be OK if you changed "at" to "in". We don't change the preposition simply because we change "class" to "lesson". 2 and 5 are unnatural.
 
So it's "AT the lesson of French Literature", but "IN the French Literature lesson"?
 
No. It's "in" for all of them!
 
But, if the lesson isn't specified, "at" should be used, right?
e.g. What did you do today at the lesson?
:?:
 
Last edited:
But, if the lesson isn't specified, "at" should be used, right?
e.g. What did you do today at the lesson?
:?:

Did anything in my previous answers suggest that that was the case? If so, please show me where I said that.

What did you do in class today?
What did you did in your lessons on Monday?
What are you going to do in your French lesson today?
We did algebra in our Maths class yesterday.
I'm dreading this afternoon. Miss Jones always makes me read aloud in her English lessons.
 
Sorry for being so dumb ;-)
All my life I've been taught that it's "At the lesson", that's why I am puzzled now.
In some forums they give the following explanation of the difference between "in the lesson" and "at the lesson": when we emphasize the location, then we use "at", and when we emphasize the activity, we use "in". E.g. here:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=102828

So my final (hopefully) questions on this point are:
1. Do you agree with the above explanation?
2. If somebody is calling a student during the lesson and asking "where are you at the moment?", can the student say "I am at the lesson (=location)"?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ask a Teacher

If you have a question about the English language and would like to ask one of our many English teachers and language experts, please click the button below to let us know:

(Requires Registration)
Back
Top