"Located in" vs "located at" - English Stack Exchange

Files are generally stored within the folder of a computer system, so the proposition in is more appropriate and accurate than at . the ... EnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforlinguists,etymologists,andseriousEnglishlanguageenthusiasts.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. LearnmoreaboutTeams "Locatedin"vs"locatedat" AskQuestion Asked 11yearsago Modified 3years,3monthsago Viewed 198ktimes 11 What'sthedifferencebetweenthem? Iaminterestedinagenericdefinition,buthereisthesentenceIwaswriting: "Thefileislocatedat/intheimagesfolder." word-choiceprepositionsat-in Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedOct18,2012at10:15 RegDwigнt♦ 95.8k3737goldbadges305305silverbadges398398bronzebadges askedSep24,2011at3:10 nmatnmat 21311goldbadge22silverbadges66bronzebadges 1 1 There'snohard-and-fastrule.For"non-spatial"contexts,and/orwherethe"location"iscommonlythoughtofasa"container"ofsomekind,inismorelikely.Thingsaremorelikelytobeatlocationsfurtheraway,butspecificcasesvary,andmanyarequiteuncertain.Theindex,forexamplecanbeatthebackofthebook,orintheback....Bothusagesoccurwithaboutequalfrequencyonthatone. – FumbleFingers Sep24,2011at12:17 Addacomment  |  4Answers 4 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 9 inwouldrefertoacontainerholdingtheobject. Thepenliesinthebox atwouldrefertothelocationoftheobject. Theboxisattheshop Inyourcontext,asthefoldercontainsthefile,therefore,useofinwouldbeappropriate. Ofcourse,they,attimes,canbeusedinterchangeably(Thanks@FumbleFingers).Thislinkgivesanicecomparisonbetweentheuseofatandin. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedSep24,2011at12:54 answeredSep24,2011at4:11 check123check123 2,08322goldbadges1515silverbadges1515bronzebadges 1 Theboxcanbeinorattheshop.Ifyouwereoutsidetheshop(especiallyifyouwereeithernearit,orowned/workedinit)andsomeoneaskedwheretheboxwas,you'dprobablysayin.Ifyouwerefurtheraway(spatiallyormetaphorically),you'dmorelikelysayat. – FumbleFingers Sep24,2011at12:06 Addacomment  |  1 Well,Iwillgowithlocatedinthefolderhere,whichsoundsmorenatural.Filesaregenerallystoredwithinthefolderofacomputersystem,sothepropositioninismoreappropriateandaccuratethanat.thepropositionatusuallygowithhome/office/university/point/stage/time/...thesewordsandsoon,indicatingwhere/whenexactlythingshappen. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredSep24,2011at3:39 woodykiddywoodykiddy 78333goldbadges88silverbadges1414bronzebadges Addacomment  |  1 "Locatedat"iswrong,and"locatedin"isnotwrong,butI'mreluctanttocallitcorrectbecauseIfind"Thefileisintheimagesfolder"preferableto"Thefileislocatedintheimagesfolder."Also,ifyouarewritingdocumentation(vs.speakingconversationally)write"Filexisintheimagesfolder";thatis,nameaspecificfileinthesentenceinsteadofdependingoncontextorapreviousreference. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredSep24,2011at6:36 JamesWaldby-jwpat7JamesWaldby-jwpat7 66.1k1111goldbadges107107silverbadges203203bronzebadges 2 Thissoundslikeyou'reassertingthat'locatedat'iswrongperse.OPopenswithagenerallyscopedquestionbeforeparticularising. – EdwinAshworth Jun20,2019at9:26 @EdwinAshworth,Iapparentlyskippedthemoregeneralquestion....Thataside,evenif'locatedat'isn'talwayswrong,itoftenisverbose. – JamesWaldby-jwpat7 Jun28,2019at4:25 Addacomment  |  0 Theword"located"issuperfluousinthiscontext.Somethingissimply"in"acontaineror"at"atplace.Saying"locatedat"ispoorgrammarinthesamesenseas"revertback". Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredSep9,2015at13:34 user138097user138097 1 Addacomment  |  YourAnswer ThanksforcontributingananswertoEnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchange!Pleasebesuretoanswerthequestion.Providedetailsandshareyourresearch!Butavoid…Askingforhelp,clarification,orrespondingtootheranswers.Makingstatementsbasedonopinion;backthemupwithreferencesorpersonalexperience.Tolearnmore,seeourtipsonwritinggreatanswers. Draftsaved Draftdiscarded Signuporlogin SignupusingGoogle SignupusingFacebook SignupusingEmailandPassword Submit Postasaguest Name Email Required,butnevershown PostYourAnswer Discard Byclicking“PostYourAnswer”,youagreetoourtermsofservice,privacypolicyandcookiepolicy Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedword-choiceprepositionsat-inoraskyourownquestion. FeaturedonMeta BookmarkshaveevolvedintoSaves Inboximprovements:markingnotificationsasread/unread,andafiltered... 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