At vs in

Rick Y.A2Kwiziq community member

At vs in

Whilst "dans" obviously translates to "in" - I would never say I'm going to stay in this hotel in English; I would say that I'm going to stay at a this hotel in English.

However, I was marked incorrect.

Asked 1 year ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour à tous,

Rick is correct! The question has been amended accordingly to include "at".

Merci et bonne journée !

Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Bonjour Rick,

https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/questions/search?search=dans

You might like to review the link above where a number of aspects of usage are discussed.

Hope this helps.

Bonne journée

Jim 

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Agreed, English usage in this case is "to stay at a hotel" but in French you still use dans as the most frequently used preposition in this context. I believe à might be a possibility, too, but I keep hearing dans more frequently.

Rick Y.A2Kwiziq community member

Bonjour Jim

Those aspects seem to be discussing "dans" vs "en".  This is not my point.  My point is the translation of the meaning of the sentence.  In the same way that we _don't_ translate "J'ai faim" = "I have hunger", we instead translate the meaning to be "I am hungry" - likewise, just because we use "dans" in French, doesn't mean it should be translate to "in" in the context of this sentence.

Rick Y.A2Kwiziq community member

Bonjour Céline et merci de m'avoir écouté !

Bonne journée

At vs in

Whilst "dans" obviously translates to "in" - I would never say I'm going to stay in this hotel in English; I would say that I'm going to stay at a this hotel in English.

However, I was marked incorrect.

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