[Grammar] Around The Corner From

[learningspirit]

I have a question about the usage of the preposition "from" in some situation. Suppose it is a multiple room complex, and room 110 and room 111 are so situated that one can walk from the front door of room 110, round a corner, and then arrive at the front door of room 111. The following crude diagram illustrates the locations of the two rooms:


rm 110
-----------
-----------|
-----------|
-----------| rm 111
-----------|
-----------|


Could I then write this:

Room 110 is around the corner from room 111.

to describe the situation?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes.

 

[learningspirit]

But if I look at these sentence pairs:

1a. My house is across the street.
1b. My house is across the street from his house.

2a. Room 110 is around the corner.
2b. Room 110 is around the corner from room 111.

For some reason, sentence 1b, formed by adding the "from his house" part to "across the street" in 1a, sounds like very good English. But sentence 2b, formed by adding the "from room 111" part to "around the corner" in 2a, does not sound as good.

It seems that "across the street" pairs with "from ..." well, but "around the corner" should not be followed by anything.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you need to describe the location of something in relation to the location of something else then you need to use "from".

If you're standing in the street and someone says "Where is the library?", you might be able to point a short distance up/down the street and say "The library is just round the corner". That is a shortened version of "The library is just round the corner from here". However, if it's further away, you would say something like "Go straight ahead for about 100 yards, turn left into Smith Street, then take the third right, keep going until you see the Post Office and then the library is just round the corner from the Post Office".