or you can say in my steam account so the in will refer to the account and not steam
but i understand the confusion as a foreign speaker my self
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I would say on Steam. I think on and in can be used interchangeably with a lot of things like when referring to how many games you have on/in your backlog or wishlist. I'm certainly no expert when it comes to language though.
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For most physical things, on and in are not interchangeable.
"my bf has his fingers on my friend" -or- "my (ex)bf has his fingers in my friend"
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That helped, thank you. And I hope your funeral will not be that soon.. ;)
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I think when you are talking about a service, generally 'on' is used - watch X on TV, listen to X on the radio, play X on steam, I have X games on steam.
Just to add what MarcioCavalcanti wrote, I agree that 'at' is often used for places you can get inside, but I feel like 'at' sounds like you are outside that place.
I'll meet you at the station - at the building, but likely to mean outside the building
I'll meet you in the station - actually inside the building.
I'm sure there are exceptions to most rules, though. I always think it's strange that we say 'in the morning', 'in the afternoon', but 'at night'.
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I suppose it's because one's usually sleeping for the duration of the night so you're not actually doing anything in the middle of the night which is one way "in the night" could be used, or "during the night". Someone else pointed out that "at" has the hint of being "around" a certain area or time which may be why we use "at/around night (before bed!)" instead of "in/during".
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Creatures prowl in the night, but we relax at lunchtime. XD
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As pointed out here already, "on" would be the proper usage, since it's a service like putting/having something on the internet or watching a movie on Netflix - "in" implies your games are physically stored on the Steam platform and just as you wouldn't say "I have downloaded the game in my computer", you wouldn't use it to refer to your Steam library either. As for "at", it typically refers to a position/location/situation you'd have to reach before accessing your games (at the store, at Valve's headquarters, at noon, at the end of the day).
Since none of these apply to the situation when referring to your games on Steam, you would indeed use the first one, "on".
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I actually would say that the game is in my computer. My hard drive is in my computer, and my games are on my hard drive; therefor, my games are in my computer. QED
To take it further, when I launch a game, it is loaded from my hard drive into my RAM (in full or in part).
In general, something can be on a platform or in a container. "At" is more general than "in" or "on". E.g. There is a party at my house. This could include the party taking place in the house, outside the house, in the back yard, on the deck, in the garage, or any combination of these.
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[Too long? Go with jbond's post, above.]
By my recollection, properly speaking, "at" is disassociative, "on" is associative, and "in" is intrusive.
However, as a general rule of thumb, you can just associate "in" or "at" with physical locations, and "on" with digital locations.
For example:
"The files are on my desktop" versus "my family is at the park" [disassociative] and "we are in the park" [intrusive].
"On" is really only used for physical associations when one thing is actually physically on top of another.
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"I threw a dart at the dartboard" indicates proximity, but not necessarily a direct connection.
This'd be the appropriate phrasing to use, if you were referencing a miss or an unknown result.
"I threw a dart onto the dartboard" indicates direct connectivity, but not intrusion.
This'd be best used if the dart hit, but fell off, or otherwise failed to properly insert into the intended contact area.
That is to say, it did become directly associated, but it did not properly intrude.
It could also mean that your dart happened to land on top of the board, but "on top of" would be a more clear option for indicating such.
"I threw a dart into the dartboard" indicates full physical intrusion.
Success! You finally landed a dart! ..y'know, on something other than the walls, TV, floor, family members, the mailman..
We were all rooting for you, y'know! Here, from our hospital beds, over in the hospital's new "dart injury" ward..
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"There's a party at my yacht" suggests that the yacht is stationary or that the party is off-board.
"There's a party on my yacht" indicates the party is somewhere on the boat.
"There's a party in my yacht" indicates the party is inside the yacht, rather than on its deck.
[Side point, it's actually correct to say "there's a party at my house" as well as "there's a party in my home",
so recognizing the point of disassociation does gets a bit tricky at times.]
"I have games at my computer" indicates the games are physically nearby to your computer, but not directly associated with it.
"I have games on my computer" indicates the games are associated with the computer's functionality directly.
"I have games in my computer" indicates the games are physically inside the computer case.
"I am smuggling darts at my car" tells us you are unlawfully transporting darts beside your car.
"I am smuggling darts on my car" tells us your car now has an optional roof-top missile feature.
"I am smuggling darts in my car" tells us your car is full of dangerous weaponry.
-
This holds true for abstracts as well:
"Being a dart-thrower is where it's at" indicates that "it" is something which can be found within the presence of a dart-thrower. [disassociative] [In other words, being a dart-thrower is how one becomes cool.]
"Being a dart-thrower is in" indicates that the act of being a dart-thrower has intruded into society's [positive] awareness. [intrusive] [In other words, being a dart-thrower is currently considered cool.]
"Being a dart-thrower is on" indicates that the act of being a dart-thrower is currently active in some way. [associative] [In other words, swayed by society's positive endorsements of being a dart-thrower, you have now thrown yourself into the role (with an end result of raising estimated average healthcare costs in the region by 40%)]
--
(Disclaimer: I'm really out of it [even for me], so [even more than usual] if anything looks off, by all means, do point it out.)
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Thank you very much! You and jbondguy007 helped me the most :)
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Since games are a part of (contained) within my Steam Library, I would say...
"I have 12345 games in my Steam library"
If you don't want to say "library" and just Steam, I would say it like...
"I have 12345 games from Steam"
Since you don't own Steam, rather it's a service provided to you as a way to get games.
Another could be...
"I own 12345 Steam games."
But really, none of that matters too much. Any of the things you suggested would pretty much get the point across and sometimes I get confused with these things anyways.
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Thank you, veebles :) This also is a very good explanation
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since you are a thing and steam is a thing and you both possibly exist with or without one another
why not "with"
i.e. i have 5 games with steam, because we are in a relationship...
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My first language is Spanish.. but i usually says: "I get 12345 games in Steam"
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So the right way to say it is "...on Steam." Thank you to everyone who contributed :)
BTW: It is the same preposition in german. "...auf Steam", whereas auf means on.
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since steam is a platform "on" would be right.
in case you use "in Steam" it's right either because you are referring to an application.
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btw "mothertongue" is a typical wrong translation of "Muttersprache".
in english and for the english language you say "native english speaker"
or for italian "native italian speaker"
you get the point. :)
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Really, now? oO
If you go to school here in Germany and learn English, our teachers teach the word "mother tongue" as "British English" to our pupils. Of course we also learn "native english speaker" but we are taught that "mother tongue" is a more sophisticated way to say the same thing.
Edit: I looked it up :D
"mother tongue" does exist and means "Muttersprache" in german. It is indeed a sophisticated word and is used in linguistics.
Cambridge Dictionary
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"Native language", "Native [language] (speaker)", and "first language" are all much more typically seen over here in America, both in casual and formal writing. While I can't say it's necessarily wrong to use, I've only ever seen "Mothertongue" or "Fathertongue" used when someone was deliberately trying to be ostentatious/goofy-sounding, or when someone was trying to make a comparison between languages in their household and languages that are natural to them- eg, "Yeah, I'm a Native English Speaker, but since my mother is from Brazil and speaks Portugese non-stop at home, I also have that as my mothertongue.".
So, probably really not a matter of "correct" or "incorrect", but "native language / native speaker" is definitely going to be the more natural sounding phrasing, at least over in the parts of America I'm famiiliar with. Meanwhile, "first language" is generally a more technical, abstract way of referring to things. So you'd see it more when people are referencing native languages in a non-personal manner, such as for encylopedic/Wikipedia references to this topic, or within an article comparing first and second languages.
Finally, there's also the phrase "dominant language", which indicates a language someone is best at, but is not necessarily native to them. Hence, in my case, since I've grown pretty useless with my native German [it's natural to drop the "language" here], my dominant language is now English.
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German English teachers suck and you rarely have one that is actually good.
Hell, they do their own stupid translations like "throw the dice" even though you say "roll the dice" and they start defending their opinion even though it is wrong. Of couse you can understand it easily since it is almost the same just as in "mother tongue".
I'm german too, yes, but since years I've been watching series and movies in english and I have never once encountered that any character ever said "mother tongue" in whatever relation except for kinky stuff actually involving some one's mother's tongue.
A real good english teacher is someone who has been living in an english speaking country for at least 2-3 years. Compare a person like that to your english teacher that has been there for 1 semester of his/her studies and you will hear and notice a huge difference in pronounciation and vocabulary.
My english is better than my english teacher`s and she asks me for help sometimes if she struggles with vocabulary and pronounciation.
She studied that shit for 3-5 years while I have been taught only basics!!!
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We could give this thread a "Big Bang Theory" style title:
The Preposition Proposition
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To the ones who are native english speakers:
I'm always puzzled about the correct preposition. I have 12345 games... at Steam? ...in Steam? ...on Steam?
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