¿Por qué "on a cold afternoon in Jaunary" es con On?

Question

¿Por qué "on a cold afternoon in Jaunary" es con On? si afternoon se le pone in al igual que January, lleva in también. Muchas gracias.

I didn't know that questions could start with "because" ("porqué"). - Malenor, NOV 27, 2009

I did fast, I have a mistake. - micaelonieto, NOV 27, 2009

Answer 1

English is quite contradictory, isn't it?

You have to relate it to the uses of these prepositions in other contexts, like viewing a calendar..

When looking at a calendar we say:

on this date or on this day

the days or dates fall in the month of January.

So when we make a sentence such as your example we use the same prepositions similarly. similar to on this day, we say on a cold afternoon

in January is just short for a day in the month of January or within the month of January

Hopefully, someone better than I, will explain it to you in Spanish.

and to make things more complicated, we say "in the evening" ;)) - Issabela, NOV 27, 2009

you would say "in the afternoon" too, but if you are speaking about a specific time period you would say "on this afternoon" or less specifically "on an afternoon (like any other)" or "on a cold day in June" - Izanoni1, NOV 27, 2009

On a cold January day, late in the afternoon, at sunset...I'm glad English isn't my second language!!! - Nicole-B, NOV 27, 2009

Answer 2

We tend to use "in" for longer periods of time (especially those that are basically conventional divisions of time and that are routinely subdivided) e.g. season, month, week and, even, "year" (although this last is related to the motion of the Earth around the Sun [or vice versa for you old-fashioned folk]). Only "day" has an obvious unity (sun-up to sun-up or sun-down to sun-down or midday to midday [depending on your preference] but all easily perceived by everyone ("year" being rather trickier [less intuitive] unless you go out and measure shadows at midday).

Days can, of course, be divided into hours and those into minutes, etc. but, here, again, we are in the realm of conventional/artificial sub-divisions. Furthermore, once we start specifying hours/minutes/etc, we use the word "at".

"on a day in January" (or on a January day") and "on a winter/winter's day" are similar in feeling to "on Wednesday" or "on the 15th of January" in that all employ "day" as the basic unit of time (the rest just refining the notion of "day").

That is an interesting analysis Samdie - Izanoni1, NOV 27, 2009

Answer 3

Una manera de hacer uso de esta palabra (on) es para decir "al tiempo/época/periodo de" o "durante un tiempo/época/periodo de" y se usa "durante" con el nombre del periodo. En este caso "el periodo " se refiere a "una tarde".

Y la frase entera "on a cold day in January" quiere decir "durante una tarde de enero en la que hace fría" o "al tarde de enero en la que hace frío".

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One way of using this word (on) is to say "at the time of" or "during the time of" and you use "during" with the name of the time period. In this case, the time period refers to "an afternoon."

And so the entire phrase "on a cold day in January" means "during a cold day in January" or "at (the time it was ) a cold day in June" (although in this case, the first interpretation sounds better in English)

Note: It might also help to look at it as "upon a cold day in June" as these two words are often interchangeable in English.

Answer 4

I believe that is because speak of concrete day, if you want speak of concrete day you use On. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Sorry for the bad I write English. My goal is to learn. Thank for help.

Answer 5

Es sólamente la convención para inglés, no por otra razón. Cada lengua tiene esas.