prepositionsword-choiceword-differenceword-usage
I have looked here, and understand the concept, but I am not sure whether or not this applies here as well.
The two sentences are :-
Rohit was knocked down by a speeding car
and
Rohit was knocked off by a speeding car
Do both mean the same ? Can either of them be accepted ?
I think they all mean roughly the same thing – if you told me one of these statements, I'd expect your address to be something like 1427 Downing Street (or someplace near that) – but there might be some contextual differences in when you would say them.
First off, I don't think any of the four would be my choice of preposition if someone asked me where I live. Instead, I'd usually say:
I live on Downing Street.
or, if I was giving the exact address:
I live at 1427 Downing Street.
However, some of the prepositions you mention are often given when people provide directions. Consider the map below:
Let's also assume Pace St. is a fairly well-known location – if you and I were in a conversation, we'd both probably know where that road is, and how to get to it. With that in mind, here are some questions you might ask, and how I might answer them:
Where do your kids go to school?
At the Goddard School.
Oh, where's that?
The Goddard School is off of Pace Street.
Actually, the school is on Olympia Ave, but I'm guessing that, if you knew where Olympia Avenue was, you wouldn't have asked me where the school is. So I use off to tell you a major road that the school is near.
Where is your Graphics shop?
It's on Santa Fe Drive.
Hmm, I don't know where that is.
Santa Fe Drive runs along the river.
Directionally, along usually means roughly parallel with. (I could have also said, "The river runs along Santa Fe Drive.")
Now, let's pretend I live where the orange square is, and my friend Monica lives where the blue square is.
Where do you live?
I live on Calais Drive.
Isn't that close to where Monica lives?
Yes, Monica lives just up the road from me.
When giving directions, up and down might be roughly synonymous, and they don't necessarily connote hills. I could have just as easily said down instead of up. In fact, one could even argue that up means "further down the road," and down means "further up the road."
These adjectives are flexible, and can be used in ways other than those I've described here. But I've tried to at least point out some of the subtle differences. I would not say that the school is along Pace Street, but I might say it's down Olympia Avenue.
Neither one works very well, which is why you are having difficulty. If you go here, and click on the list of books up to 2000 for both on and in this subject, you will find a good number of examples of their usage. Here is one example of each:
I would appreciate any information on this subject.
Students should be immersed in this subject early.
I would go another way. Something like this:
Using both class-oriented and subject-oriented schemes enables us to compare the results with the other methods used for this type of classification.
Putting the in there establishes that you are contrasting your method with a set of existing methods that are also used to do the same thing.
Best Answer
There are vastly different primary meanings of knock off, when not used with a prepositional phrase like "from a shelf" for clarity: to kill, or to pirate, or to rob (see linked definitions).
To knock down means to displace or topple, and cause to fall.
To most people, this means that Rohit was hit by a speeding car, lost his balance, and fell (we assume to the ground).
To most people, this means he was intentionally killed, and that it was done via a speeding car.
To most people, this means that Rohit was hit by a speeding car, lost his balance, and fell (we assume to the ground).