At/in the restaurant

[Tarheel]

In post #16, you said native speakers just wouldn't say it like that. So I wanted to make sure I didn't misunderstand your explanations. With bank and office and probably restaurant ''in'' is more likely to be used, but with school, college and university ''at'' is more likely than ''in''. Right?

My suggestion.

 

[sondra]

If someone is anywhere within the interior of a bank, they could be described either as "in the bank" or "at the bank". Although the chances are that their reason for being in the building is to do some sort of bank transaction, "in" refers only to the geographical location of the person, whereas "at" can suggest specifically that they are carrying out a transaction of some kind. However, there is no 100% certainty.

That's why I was wondering if it is correct to say that that ''in'' is used when we are thinking about location and ''at'' is used when we are thinking about the activity that happens in a particular place. For example, bank transaction which you mentioned.

 

[emsr2d2]

Why have you underlined every word in your last post?

 

[sondra]

I coudn't quote you. Everything was mixed. Thank you for fixing it.