# in / of



## Dymn

How would you translate_ in_ as in the following sentence?

_It's the tallest building in the world.
_
In Catalan and Spanish we use _de_ 'of':

_És l'edifici més alt del món.
Es el edificio más alto del mundo._


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## ilocas2

Czech:

Je to nejvyšší budova na světě. (na světě - on world (in locative))

Je to nejvyšší budova světa. (světa - world (in genitive))


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## apmoy70

Greek:

*«Είναι το ψηλότερο κτήριο του κόσμου»* [ˈine to p͡siˈloteɾo ˈktiɾi.o tu ˈkozmu] --> _It's the taller building of the world_

*«Του»* [tu] (masc. & neut. definite article in genitive sing.) --> _of the, of that_ < Inherited demonstrative pronoun used in post-Homeric Greek as the article *«ὁ» hŏ* (masc. nom. sing.), *«τό» tó* (neut. nom. sing.), *«τοῦ» toû* (masc. & neut. gen. sing.) (PIE *teh₂-/*tod-/*so- _demonstrative this/that one_, later _article_ cf Skt. तद् (tad), _he or she_, Proto-Germanic *sa > OEng. sē (> Eng. the/that), Dt. die/dat, Ger. der).
Note also that we use the comparative (taller), and not the superlative (tallest) of the adj. *«ψηλός, -λή, -λό»* [p͡siˈlos] (masc.), [p͡siˈli] (fem.), [p͡siˈlo] (neut.), aphetic of Classical adj. *«ὑψηλός, -λὴ, -λόν» hŭp͡sēlós* (masc.), *hŭp͡sēlḕ* (fem.), *hŭpsēlón* (neut.) --> _high, lofty, stately proud, upraised_ (PIE *up-s- _above_ cf Proto-Slavic *vysь > Rus. высь, Cz. výše, BCS вис/vis).


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## ger4

Estonian:
_See on maailma_ _kõrgeim_ _ehitis_.
_see on = it is_
_maailma = world's (genitive) < maailm = world _
_kõrgeim = tallest, highest < kõrge = high, tall_
_ehitis = building _

German:
_Es ist das höchste Gebäude der Welt._
_es ist = it is_
_das höchste = the highest, tallest < hoch = high, tall_
_Gebäude = building_
_der Welt = the world's _(genitive) _< die Welt = the world_


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## tartopom

In French

C'est le plus grand / le plus haut bâtiment du monde.

It's the same idea as in Spanish or Catalan. Indeed we don't say "dans le monde". But we say " du monde", a reduced form of " de le monde".


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## 810senior

Japanese:
世界で*一番*高いビル。
lit. *the most* tall building in the world (*Japanese language doesn't have either comparative or superlative).

で(pronounced _de_): particle for locative case.
一番(pronounced ichiban): literally means number one but is used as if being a adverb meaning "the most, extremely, to a very great degree".


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## Messquito

In Chinese it's ...上, literally meaning "on/above"
_It's the tallest building in the world._
它是世界上最高的建築物。


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## Armas

Holger2014 said:


> Estonian:
> _See on maailma_ _kõrgeim_ _ehitis_.
> _see on = it is_
> _maailma = world's (genitive) < maailm = world _
> _kõrgeim = tallest, highest < kõrge = high, tall_
> _ehitis = building_



Finnish is no different: _Se on maailman korkein rakennus._


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## 810senior

I guess English can as well take the _of the world _as in it's the tallest building _of the world_. (is that correct?)


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## Encolpius

In Hungarian we use in (a világon), but it is possible to use possessive as well.


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## Dymn

810senior said:


> I guess English can as well take the _of the world _as in it's the tallest building _of the world_. (is that correct?)


It may be grammatically correct but it sounds off as far as I know. You can however say _it's the world's tallest building_.


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## TheCrociato91

In *Italian* we would say: "l'edificio più alto _al_ mondo" (_in_ the world) or "_del_ mondo" (_of _the world). I personally find the former more natural. 

I wouldn't use "_nel_ mondo" (also meaning _in_ the world) in this sentence. It's probably grammatically correct but doesn't sound that natural.


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## Sardokan1.0

TheCrociato91 said:


> In *Italian* we would say: "l'edificio più alto _al_ mondo" (_in_ the world) or "_del_ mondo" (_of _the world). I personally find the former more natural.



I when speaking Italian would use the second version (del Mondo), while I would never say "al mondo" it sounds unnatural to my ears. I would use the first because it's the 1:1 translation of Sardinian and it's more similar to our way of speaking.


_*Italian *: "l'edificio più alto del mondo" (of the world) - *Sardinian *: "su palattu piùs altu de su mundu" (of the world)_


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## TheCrociato91

Sardokan1.0 said:


> while I would never say "al mondo" it sounds unnatural to my ears.



That's interesting. I guess it mainly depends on personal preference and / or exposure to a subvariety of the language. There's an article by _Accademia della Crusca_ on the topic; it's pretty long so I couldn't be bothered to go through the whole thing (  ), but the bottom line seems to be you can use either.


Edited to add the link.


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## Sardokan1.0

TheCrociato91 said:


> I guess it mainly depends on personal preference and / or exposure to a subvariety of the language.



In this case is due to the exposure to a different language with different grammar rules, Sardinian is not a subvariety but just a far cousin of Italian, more or less like English is a far cousin of German.


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## elroy

Arabic: في / بـ (“in”)


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## Drakonica

Jest to najwyższy budynek *na* świecie (on).
Jest to najwyższy budynek świata. (Equivalent of "of", but using genitive of a noun).


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## Encolpius

Russian: Это самое высокое здание в мире. (in the world)


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## Awwal12

Encolpius said:


> Russian: Это самое высокое здание в мире. (in the world)


Or ...на свете (lit. "on the world/light"), which would be generally colloquial.
Or, indeed, ...самое высокое здание мира (of.world), though it wouldn't be quite idiomatic (because you don't normally represent the world as something that "has buildings"; if the sentence was about "the highest building of the city", the genitive construction would sound much better).


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## Frank78

German has three possibilities:

1.) genitive without preposition: "das höchste Gebäude der Welt" (the world*'s* tallest building/the tallest building *of* the world)

2.) auf + dative "das höchste Gebäude *auf* der Welt" (the tallest building *on* the world)

3.) in + dative "das höchste Gebäude *in* der Welt" (the tallest building* in* the world)

1) and 2) are more common.


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## tartopom

Frank78 said:


> German has three possibilities:


Frank, you remind me that we have another * possibility. Indeed I've also heard 'C'est le plus grand immeuble au monde.'

* post 5.


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## AutumnOwl

Swedish: 
Det är världens/jordens högsta byggnad - it's the world's/earth's highest building
Det är den högsta byggnaden i världen - it's the highest building in the world
Det är den högsta byggnaden på jorden - it's the highest building on the earth

The first one is the most common way we say it.


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