> Small question: When you have a spoonful of soup, is the soup *on* the spoon, or is it *in* the spoon? Thanks.
>
> Ma"settling an argument"ry

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Thank you for sending your question to the ELI Grammar Hotline.
I've posted it on our web site.

Lowell

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"On" the spoon or "in" the spoon? I think it's "on,"
but my friends insists that it's "in." Please help!

Amy,

Your friends are basically right. But it depends on the
situation. As a utensil a spoon is able to hold something in a sort of
container. In this case it's appropriate to say "in the spoon" if you
mean the spoon is containing some substance, such as sugar or tea.
But it is possible to say "on the spoon" in other situations. If
you wanted to apply silver polish, for example, to a spoon to shine it,
you would put polish "on the spoon" because it is applied to the entire
spoon, not just the container part.