Standing "in Line" or "on a line"?

1. 60

   Peter Leeperposted 13 years ago

   Standing "in Line" or "on a line"?
   
   Over the years, and to much annoyance, I have heard people refer to stanind in a "queue" i.e. in line as standing "on a line" oir waiting "on a line"  Usually it seems that people refer to this activity in this way.  Which do you think is correct?  Why?

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2. 60

   chiefmomofficerposted 13 years ago

   I always say "standing in line" as to me, saying "standing on a line" would imply that there is something on the floor that I am standing "on."  Just my two cents though.

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3. 79

   JamaGeneeposted 13 years ago

   Ditto to what chiefmomofficer said.  Standing "IN line", NOT "on a line".  I think it depends somewhat on the country or the vernacular of a particular area.

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   duffsmomposted 13 years ago

   I've never heard anyone say "on a line."  It might be a regional thing.  I say, "in line."

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5. 82

   BlissfulWriterposted 13 years ago

   It is most common to say "standing in line", rather than "standing a line".

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6. 64

   Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

   Oh!  That one irks the heck out of me!   IN LINE!!!    (lol)
   
   Here's my reasoning for anyone (like my kids' father) who insists on saying, "on line":
   
   It's a line that's made up of people.  That means that the people who make up that line are "in" it - not "on" it.  Maybe people who say "on line" imagine that there's an imaginary line that all the people IN that line are standing on (which is a far less flattering image of people IN a line than seeing them as part of the group that, in fact, makes up the line anyone is talking about in the first place.  Picturing people standing on an imaginary line takes the concept of a line from being something former by people by being something they're compelled to stay ON, rather than be a part of the line itself.
   
   And YET, do you think I've ever managed to convince that particular individual I mentioned that he's completely WRONG about saying "on line"???   Not on your life.  I've known this "irksome individual" for 39 years now, and he has yet to come around, see the error of his ways, and say, "IN line".
   
   On top of everything else, you'd think that now the Internet exists, people who say "on line" might want to see that now there's even more reason to say "in line" - but, NOOOOOOOO.....  They'd rather let "on line" and "online" be confused, rather than get rid of their thing that there's some imaginary line on the ground when people are waiting for one thing or another.   

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7. 82

   Doc Snowposted 13 years ago

   My impression, for what it is worth, is that regional usage varies in this respect.  I grew up in Canada and live in Georgia now; "standing in line" is the normal usage in both places--North America not liking "queue" much!
   
   For me, 'on' a line creates a bizarre mental image, but clearly it's normal for some folks--and who am I to sneer?  Prepositional usage always seems a bit weird anyway--note how often the 'normal' preposition fails to line up in different languages.  (No, I can't think of an example this minute, but I swear I've noticed this!)

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8. 60

   Peter Leeperposted 13 years ago

   Queue, which i like, probably isn't used much because it is hard to spell (see how i spelled it in original question(wait..i think i got auto-corrected))  I think one you might be thinking of Doc snow is one that comes from New England.  Often when people are saying that they too do something, they will say "so don't I" instead of so do I.  For the first few years i lived hear i thought people were  being sarcastic with me when they said this phrase...

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9. 76

   mattforteposted 13 years ago

   I have never once heard anybody say standing on a line...unless there happened to be a line on the ground, and they were standing on it.

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