meaningmeaning-in-contextprepositions
I just came across this sentence:
So right now, my focus is with my kids and I'm really enjoying my time with them.
Will there be any change in meaning if we replace 'with' with 'on'?
So right now, my focus is on my kids and I'm really enjoying my time with them.
Regulate and control are similar in meaning, but they are not exact synonyms. When referring to government actions, the meaning of regulate is usually
to make regulations for or concerning
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/regulate, definition 1b2)
Control is a little more general, and often is used to mean
to exercise restraining or directing influence over
or
to have power over
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/control, definitions 2a and 2b)
So the original sentence means something like:
Production, distribution and sale will stay in private hands, but the government will have power over the whole process and will make regulations concerning it.
She graduated with a degree in studio art, with a focus in printmaking.
This is an academic context. In this context, the preposition in is often used with the verb focus to describe a program's special emphasis.
As an example, have a look at these program listings from a Google search. Notice how they are all hits on academic websites:
Best Answer
Both sentences will be understood to mean the same thing, for all practical purposes. However, the second sentence contains the correct preposition to use with the verb 'to focus'. In this case it means to concentrate the attention. The proper preposition to use with 'focus' is 'on'.
So, why one would say 'My focus is with...'?
When this particular verb has a noun as an object it has a literal, immediate sense to it. The thing or person that is focusing is most likely in the same place as the object of focus and the focusing is a discrete physical action. This is not true 100% of the time but it tends to be true a lot of the time. My example above is
But when the object of focus is a goal expressed in a verb phrase, as in my second example
the focus is more figurative. It's a mental action with an aspirational goal. In this case the goal is to finish my test.
Both of your example sentences are of this second type. What they're really saying is
The object of the focus is the verb phrase 'being with my kids'. Each sentence drops a couple of words and assumes that the listener will fill in the missing information. People often want to condense their speech into the fewest possible syllables, probably because it's less work physically and mentally to spell the whole idea out, and it's unnecessary if the meaning can still be communicated that way.
The second part of the sentences is the same and it helps us assume the goal of the focus. We understand that the goal is 'being with the kids' because we're told that the result of reaching the goal is spending time with the kids.
Because there's an aspirational goal behind the focus, we know that there must be a verb phrase as its object and we can fill in the missing words in the first part of the sentence mentally, whether we're aware we're doing it or not. This allows the speaker to be a little sloppy with their language.