"Ela caiu em cima do seu braço."

Translation: She fell on top of her arm.

[rfermo]

Why wasn't "She fell on top of her arm" accepted? I agree that the accepted translation sounds more natural in English, but mine was the more literal translation and as a native English speaker I wouldn't say that it sounds wrong.

[DanielePrisco17]

It's accepted (30/12/2018)

[Zoltan_Nemeth]

Isn't there any easier expression than literally saying "on top of her arm"?

[peterjoel58]

5 years ago, Armwood suggested "onto", which I agree is a better translation. But no one seems to have taken any notice.

[LeslieWedd]

"She fell on top of his arm". What's wrong with that? And if it is incorrect, how would you translate "she fell on top of his arm". Shouldn't the possessive pronoun be omitted when the thing possessed belongs to the subject eg "eu tenho dor de estomago" and not "eu tenho dor de meu estomago"?

[Armwood]

need explanation of "em cima" or "cima de", please.

[Paulenrique]

on = em cima de. "De" always comes "em cima" and "embaixo" (under)

[Armwood]

ok, i got it, special phrase, all right. but can it be a simple "em" too? i mean: ela caiu em seu braco. she felt on her arm. hm, maybe "onto" would be better... all the same, i could live with both...

[Paulenrique]

No, in such cases we use "em cima de"

[Danmoller]

We can use it in lots of cases:

Caiu no chão.
A geleia caiu em seu braço.

It just gets strange in this specific case, where we would say "ela caiu em cima do braço".

[PeterHermanides]

That is not proper English
She fell on her arm.
That is correct