of or on

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

We can ride of the backs of horses and, sometimes, they are used to pull around carriages as well as other things because they are so strong.
Could be “on” used instead of “of” in bold.
Thanks

2

“Ride” as a verb phrase, while sitting over an animal, we use “on”, but over vehicles, we use" in". In fact of train, it is “on” etc.

I never heard about “of”, somebody may show you more light.

3

Which word order could be correct? If both are acceptable, which do you consider better one?

  1. Doctors often say that you should stay in bed when you have a cold or the flu for a couple of days.

  2. Doctors often say that you should stay in bed for a couple of days when you have a cold or the flu.

Thanks

4

First one, because you have to put the word by some rules not by whimsical ways.

Subject+ Verb+ Place modifier(if any)+ Time modifier(if any)

Like:
I visited the USA last summer.

Please see: Cliffs’s TOEFL suggestion book or A.S. Hornby’s
Pattern for English sentence structure etc.

5

The second one is better, E2e4, because ‘for a couple of days’ modifies ‘stay in bed’, so that should be parsed together as one unit. ‘When you have a cold or the flu’ then tells us when we should ‘stay in bed for a couple of days’ – i.e. it modifies that entire idea.

[color=darkblue]______________________________________________________________________________
[size=75]“I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.” ~ Muhammad Ali[/size]

6

Well, we should go more precisely, I think it will do:

Doctors often say when you have a cold or the flu then you should stay in bed for a couple of days.

7

The word “then” should be deleted.

8

#1 is the original sentence I came across under “test” link.
#2 is my invention.

I think one more pretty acceptable version could be

  1. When you have a cold or the flu, doctors often say that you should stay in bed for a couple of days.

In such word order, and in my opinion, there are no misplaced modifiers as in the original one.

Thanks

9

If the intended meaning is that doctors say “you should stay in bed for a couple of days when you have a cold or the flu”, then I prefer #2. #3 could be interpreted as meaning that doctors say “you should stay in bed for a couple of days” when someone has a cold or the flu.

10

Thanks Dozy.