"Υπάρχει σκόνη στο σπίτι."
Translation:There is dust in the house.
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1533
How would you tell it is IN vs ON? I said "there is dust ON the house" and it was marked wrong.
- 186
This has to do with the semantic differences of the English prepositions. "The dust is in the house" means that everything is dusty inside the house so you should clean up. On the contrary, "The dust is on the house" means that there is dust on top of the house, on the roof, while the rest of it is fine.
In order to understand this better, try replacing 'dust' with 'snow'. Someone could say "I can see snow on the house" meaning that the rooftop must be white, but "I can see snow in the house" would mean that somebody is in trouble, because they have brought snow in its interior!
- 186
This is partially wrong. If you say "the dust is at home" you mean that the dust has returned at its house or feels at home etc. The meaning of the sentence above is that the house is dusted and needs to be cleaned.