Could you please help me with this sentence? Thank you!
At first the civil war did not go well for the Reds. They were attacked on all sides by the White army.
Why it's "was attacked on all sides" not “was attacked from all sides”？
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Could you please help me with this sentence? Thank you!
At first the civil war did not go well for the Reds. They were attacked on all sides by the White army.Why it's "was attacked on all sides" not “was attacked from all sides”？
If you say "on" all sides it's referring to the Red army receiving the attack. If you say "from" all sides it's referring to where the White army was when they attacked.
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Could you please help me with this sentence? Thank you!
At first the civil war did not go well for the Reds. They were attacked on all sides by the White army.Why is it "was attacked on all sides" not “was attacked from all sides”?
Hi David. Just my two cents, but the word “surround” means “to enclose on all sides” and could easily substitute in your sentence above without much change in meaning [i.e. if they were surrounded, they could be attacked…]. The corpus I reviewed showed that phrase is used more often than the other, something to the effect of 3-1. In terms of general usage, they are pretty much interchangeable and undisguisable, the subtle difference being, perhaps, one’s viewpoint as the “doer” or the “receiver.” Furthermore, the examples I have seen seem to indicate that “from all sides” includes directions both above and below one’s location [The jets swarmed and attacked the bombers from all sides. The frogmen attacked the submarine from all sides.]. In contrast, “on all sides” reflects the enemy or whatever being situated to one’s North, South, East and West direction, but not above or below. If anyone else has a better explanation though, I’d like to hear it. I hope that this helps you. J.
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Thank you my friend! How amazing English is!
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If they were attacked "from" all sides, that means the opposing army came upon them from North, East, South, and West, etc.. If they were attacked "on" all sides, that means all of thier perimeters were hit upon. Both prepisitions are correct, they just emphasize slightly different positions.
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