# staat op/staat in de



## Chocolate Milk

Hi Wordreference members,

This is my first post and I'm glad to have the assistance of many helpful people here. I'm currently learning Dutch (very much a beginner) and I'm trying to figure out when to use the prepositions 'Op' and 'In de'. I was confused by the following 2 examples:

De suiker staat *op* tafel.
De suiker staat *in de* koelkast.

The question is, why is 'tafel' not preceded by 'een' or 'de'? Or is this the way it is?

Thanks!


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## petoe

If you say 'De suiker staat op tafel', it doesn't really matter which table, you assume everyone knows which table is meant.
Personally I don't think there's really a difference.
However, this only seems to work for 'op tafel', I can't find any other example where you can drop the article:
De suiker staat op de stoel, op een bord, op de schotel,...
It's more like a collocation: iets op tafel zetten, iets op tafel gooien etc.


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## Lopes

Same as "aan tafel", "in bed", "in huis", "op zolder" etc. They have slightly different meanings than "aan de tafel", "in het bed", "in het huis", "op de zolder", but I'm afraid I don't know the specific rules.


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## AllegroModerato

Hello and welcome, 

*Op tafel* is a fixed expression, a bit like *in bed* (same in English as in Dutch). You could also say *op de tafel*, especially if you were talking about a specific table. For example: *de suiker staat op de tafel bij het raam* (by the window). In most cases, though, it´s not permitted to leave out the article.

Let´s wait what other Dutch natives have to say about this.

Greetings,


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## Kayla321

I agree with AllegroModerato.


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## Chocolate Milk

Wow, thanks everyone for your contribution! I guess it puts my mind at ease somewhat to learn that '*op tafel*' is a fixed expression and I really like the analogy '*in bed*' because I suppose there'll be English learners out there who'd ask why is 'bed' not preceded by 'the'? Now, that makes things so much clearer! Thanks again.


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