Preposition: Staple your assignments <at, in, on> the upper left-hand corner.

J

Jinbei

Member
Japan/Japanese
Hello members!

I'd like to know which preposition is the most suitable for the following context.

Teacher to students:
"Staple your assignments (in/on/at) the upper left-hand corner."

When I googled "staple + upper left(-hand) corner", it appears all the prepositions are correct. Still, I'd like to know which one is the most common.

Thanks for your help!
Jinbei
 
    • Jinbei said:
    Hello members!

    I'd like to know which preposition is the most suitable for the following context.

    Teacher to students:
    "Staple your assignments (in/on/at) the upper left-hand corner."

    When I googled "staple + upper left(-hand) corner", it appears all the prepositions are correct. Still, I'd like to know which one is the most common.

    Thanks for your help!
    Jinbei
    Click to expand...

    I Googled like this: "staple * * in the corner" (also with at and in). I got this:

    10,200 English pages for "staple * * in the corner
    155 English pages for "staple * * at the corner".
    91 English pages for "staple * * on the corner".

    Which kind of makes sense, as the staple is placed in the interior of the corner.
     
    Thanks a lot, members!

    I googled "stapled in (on/at) the corner" and got the following:

    151 pages for "at"
    213 pages for "in"
    3 pages for "on"

    I think I can count out "on", and will use "in" or "at".

    Thanks again.
    Jinbei
     
    I always tell my students to staple their papers in the upper left corner. Probably because the staple goes into the paper when you press the stapler.

    They write their names at the top of the page because that is a formating location.
     
    I would probably say "staple the papers together at the top/upper left-hand corner." All of them sounded strange to me without the "together." Can't explain why.

    Z.
     
    Isotta said:
    I would probably say "staple the papers together at the top/upper left-hand corner." All of them sounded strange to me without the "together." Can't explain why.

    Z.
    Click to expand...

    I think "staple it in" is a synonym of "place it in" there.
     
    I would say "staple your assignments in the top left corner"; but "staple your papers together in the top left corner".

    "Assignment" already implies "collection of papers"; the "together" would suggest that you had several assignments to staple together, in this context.

    MrP
     
    Hello,
    I understand that staple in was the correct use. I wanted to ask however, if I am not using the verb staple but I simply want to indicate where some information in the document is located, would I say, 'It's in/at the lower right corner'? Thank you!
     
    I am a high school student in China, because my English teacher asked me how to use in/on/at the corner,I read your answers .But the funny thing is your answers are completely different from what I've read on Chinese sites. :confused:
     
    Cirno said:
    I am a high school student in China, because my English teacher asked me how to use in/on/at the corner,I read your answers .But the funny thing is your answers are completely different from what I've read on Chinese sites. :confused:
    Click to expand...

    Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of errors in the English-language recommendations of Chinese sites. (There are probably just as many errors, if not more, in the Chinese-language recommendations of English sites, but I don't know because I can't read them.) I would go by what we write here.
     
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