80123
I have a doubt regarding the use of で and に in the following sentences:

  1. 私は車の中に座っている
  2. 私は車の中で座っている

As per me, I think で should be used as, the person is sitting inside the car
(i.e. an action is being performed inside the car), so で should have been
used. Whereas, when I used Google translator it was showing the first sentence
i.e. 私は車の中に座っている, and not で座っている. However, when I clarified it by involving
the use of 椅子 then the particle governing 車の中 changed to で i.e.
私は車の中で椅子に座っている.

So, my question is,

  1. Whether the use of に instead of で grammatical (sentences 1 and 2)?

  2. Could you please highlight the difference between 1st and 2nd sentence, if sentence 1 is grammatical?

教えてください
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-13T12:01:00.463
80110
2020-08-13T19:45:14.277
2020-08-13T16:50:11.773
36729
36729
question
に-and-で
Usage of に or で in the following sentence
私は車の中に座っている is more natural. When you use the verb 座る, the particle に is used
to mark the thing on/in which the sitting is happening. I can understand your
confusion because 座る is a tricky example.

Sometimes it helps to analyse sentences in terms of its main message. This is
very general advice but, is the sentence mainly trying to describe a 'what'
(the action) or a 'where' (the place)? で is generally used with 'what'
sentences and に is generally used with 'where' sentences. It's more obvious
with things like chairs (椅子に座る) which describe a 'where', but the principle is
the same. It's not impossible to use で with 座る, but it would no longer be
marking the specific object of the sitting.

So is a sentence like `I'm sitting in the car` describing a 'what' or a
'where'? The main message of this sentence is not to describe an action being
performed (a 'what') - it's to describe where the person is sitting (a
'where'). So に makes more sense. But if you change the focus of the sentence
to a 'what', something like `I'll eat the bento in the car`, now it's clear
that the main point of the sentence is to describe an action which is
happening in the car. Then it would be 車の中 **で** 弁当を食べる.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-13T19:45:14.277
80123
2020-08-13T19:45:14.277
25875
80110
answer