There is a security camera on the building to your left
There is a security camera on the building on your left
Is there any real difference in meaning here? Which sounds more natural to native speakers?
Word Choice – ‘To Your Left’ vs ‘On Your Left’
prepositionsword-choice
Related Solutions
The difference is in the degree of change applied to the object.
Enhancing leaves the main structure and functionality the same, most features intact, and generally speaking improves the object by applying small modifications.
Revamping often changes the basis, some fundamentals, some key features. Structure can undergo some changes, but the functionality generally is kept as is although we can see re-prioritizing of some elements.
Overhauling involves disassembling into constituent parts, examining each of them carefully for flaws, replacing with equivalent new parts (subsystems), in order to bring the system's performance closer to the original specification/idea.
Those words are not interchangeable. You could overhaul an engine of an aircraft to bring the engine back to its "factory new" performance. You could enhance an engine of an aircraft by replacing some heavier parts with lighter ones, for instance. You wouldn't revamp an engine. The latter most often used to describe a process for making fixes in a social/business system, like government, company management, etc. You could, however, revamp a design of an engine, which often includes technological part (manufacturing).
It's certainly true that "if yes" is a lot less common than "if so". But it's not so much that it's wrong, as that it implies things a bit differently and is therefore rarer.
From that ngram graph we can also see that, while putting "if so" in the middle of a sentence is almost as common as putting it at the beginning, "if yes" is very nearly always at the beginning. This points, again, to the difference in usage.
Basically, "if yes" only works if there's a question that is obviously answerable only with yes or no, and even there it's not necessarily preferred. In contrast, "if so" works even if there's no explicit question, or if it's a bit fuzzier. Examples where "if yes" is dubious or wrong:
OK Did you get the email I sent? If so, make sure to send the form along before the deadline.
? Did you get the email I sent? If yes, make sure to send the form along before the deadline.
OK I wanted to check if you got the email I sent; if so, make sure to send the form along before the deadline.
* I wanted to check if you got the email I sent; if yes, make sure to send the form along before the deadline.
Example where "if yes" is fine:
OK Are you legally blind? If so, fill out form XYZ-B and attach it.
OK Are you legally blind? If yes, fill out form XYZ-B and attach it.
Unfortunately, the particular example you give is ungrammatical or unnatural in several ways:
Since the announcement of STM32L4 MCUs
onlast September, more than 45 specific training modules are available online. Did yougotget the opportunity to watch some of them? If yes, wewillwould bethankfulgrateful toknowreceive your feedback on this offer.
"If yes" isn't actually wrong here, but it's not really ideal, since someone might have watched part of one, might be about to watch one, might have watched several, might have watched all of them…. So "yes"/"no" aren't exactly the only answers, and in this case, going with the fuzzier logic of "if so" works better.
Best Answer
They both sound natural, but I'd say there's a subtle difference... Maybe other native speakers could weigh in to make sure this difference isn't a regional thing.
To me, the phrase "to your left" means "about ninety degrees to the left of where you're facing," and the phrase "on your left" means more generally "to the left of where you're facing."
In your example, if we were walking down the street, I'd probably know exactly which building you were talking about if you said "the building to your left," but I might ask, "Which one?" if you said "the building on your left." (You might be referring to a couple different buildings.)
I'd also say there are subtle differences when you further modify "on/to your left." For example, it sounds much better to me to say, "the next few buildings on your left" than "the next few buildings to your left."
Similarly, if you said "all the buildings to your left," I'd interpret that to mean the buildings that I would see if I turned ninety degrees to my left, possibly including buildings behind me. If you said "all the buildings on your left", I'd interpret that to mean the buildings in front of me on the left hand side of the street.