Posted by rfvv on Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 8:06pm.
1. He spent a lot of money on dancing.
2. He spent a lot of money in dancing.
3. He spent a lot of money on buying things at the shop.
4. He spent a lot of money in buying things at the shop.
5. He spent a lot of money dancing.
6. He spent a lot of money buying things at the shop.
(Which expressions are grammatical?)
•English - Ms. Sue, Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 8:10pm
2 and 4 are incorrect. The others are right.
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Thank you very much for your help. What about the following? I changed 'money' into 'time'.
1. He spent a lot of time on dancing.
2. He spent a lot of time in dancing.
3. He spent a lot of time on buying things at the shop.
4. He spent a lot of time in buying things at the shop.
5. He spent a lot of time dancing.
6. He spent a lot of time buying things at the shop.
(Which expressions are grammatical?)
5 and 6 are best. The others are awkward.
To determine which expressions are grammatical, we need to consider the prepositions used after the verbs "spent" and "time." Here's a breakdown of each sentence:
1. He spent a lot of time on dancing. (Grammatical)
Explanation: "On" is the correct preposition to indicate the activity or topic someone spent time on.
2. He spent a lot of time in dancing. (Incorrect)
Explanation: "In" is not the appropriate preposition to indicate spending time on a specific activity.
3. He spent a lot of time on buying things at the shop. (Grammatical)
Explanation: "On" is correctly used here to convey the idea of spending time engaging in the activity of buying things at the shop.
4. He spent a lot of time in buying things at the shop. (Grammatically acceptable but less common)
Explanation: "In" can be used to describe the process or duration of an activity, so this sentence is technically correct. However, using "on" is more common and idiomatic in this context.
5. He spent a lot of time dancing. (Grammatical)
Explanation: Without any preposition, this sentence is correct because "dancing" directly follows the verb "spent," indicating the specific activity someone spent time doing.
6. He spent a lot of time buying things at the shop. (Grammatical)
Explanation: Similar to the previous sentence, no preposition is used here. The phrase "buying things at the shop" directly follows the verb "spent" and denotes the specific activity spent time on.
In summary, sentences 1, 3, 5, and 6 are grammatically correct, while sentences 2 and 4 are incorrect or less common.