I'm Going Abroad!

Oh gosh, once again, the date and time on blogger are acting up. This was yesterday's post. Today's post is below this one. Geez.

No, I'm not going abroad and leaving this blog. I'm just writing about a common English grammar mistake that I've been hearing lately. It seems that when many Filipinos say "I'm going abroad," they say "I'm going in abroad." Or, I've also heard "I'm going in other country." Clearly, these are wrong. I think the reason for the mess is that the speakers are transliterating the Filipino "pupunta ako sa ibang bansa." Now, sa in Tagalog does not literally translate into in when the idea of moving to another country is talked about in English.

English grammar tells us that the correct sentence for this is "I'm going abroad" or "I'm going to another country." Why is this so? You use in when you want to say that you will be located within a specific place such as "He is in China" or "She's in the theater." Abroad and other country are not places with clearly defined boundaries. Instead, you can say "I'm going to China" and "I'll be in another country by then" (in this case another country refers to a specific country that the speaker knows he/she is going to).

Let's stay in the Philippines!