grammar - Which preposition: "Write on/at/to this address?"


My exam included this fill-in-the-blank question:



Please write __ this address. (on/at/to)



I filled the blank with on.


Is that correct?



Answer



You can write on paper or any surface, such as a hand or on a wall.
You can also write on a subject or topic according to this website: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/write+on (but I'm not entirely convinced).


So "Please write on this address" I would interpret to mean the inscriber has to write over a pre-typed address. "On" in this case indicates place. The request sounds odd to me but from a grammatical point of view it is arguably correct.


As for using the preposition "at" I would consider the sentence to be incomplete. A direct object is needed.


"Please write to me/him/her/us/them at this address"


My preferred answer would be: "Please write to this address" You are asked to communicate and transfer your message from one place (presumably your home) to another ("this address"). http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/to?s=t


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

verbs - "Baby is creeping" vs. "baby is crawling" in AmE

commas - Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?

time - English notation for hour, minutes and seconds

grammatical number - Use of lone apostrophe for plural?

etymology - Origin of "s--t eating grin"

etymology - Where does the phrase "doctored" originate?

word choice - Which is the correct spelling: “fairy” or “faerie”?