Am Flughafen: Gates, Bahnsteige und Hotel-Check-in

01Leaving: airports and stations

Arrive in London but arrive at the airport: cities and countries are containers, stations and terminals are points. Check in at the counter, wait at Gate 12, and go through security — through, because you pass inside a controlled space. Say each step of your next trip aloud with its preposition; airports are perfect rehearsal stages.

02Boarding: on and in

Get on the plane, the train, the bus, and the subway — large vehicles you board. Get in the car and in the taxi — small cars that enclose you. Getting off reverses it: get off the train, get out of the taxi. Flight attendants announce it daily: we are now boarding at Gate 12, on flight 302 to Paris.

03Staying: hotels and rooms

Stay at a hotel but in Room 301: the hotel is the point on your itinerary, the room is the space around you. Sleep on the second floor — floors are surfaces — and eat in the restaurant or at the restaurant, depending on whether you mean inside the dining room or the venue as a meeting point. Same building, different pictures.

04Asking the way

Directions run on a fixed set: next to the bank, between the station and the park, opposite the museum, at the end of the street, on your left. Walk past the church, then turn left at the lights. Notice how every landmark is a point (at) and every side is a surface (on) — the whole system from the earlier guides, working in one conversation.

DU BIST DRAN

Stell die Verbindung her.

Lies die Situation vor der Wahl. Das Warum zählt wie die Antwort.