Who has been in this box? "be in" and "touch" Someone had hidden a box full of chocolate bars to eat them later. Soon the person finds out the box has been empty by another person. He shouts, "Who has

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Who has been in this box? "be in" and "touch" Someone had hidden a box full of chocolate bars to eat them later. Soon the person finds out the box has been empty by another person. He shouts, "Who has been in this box? What pig has been in this box?" Question. I wonder if the phrase 'be in something' in this sentence can mean 'touch something'? 'Who has been in MY ROOM?' makes sense to me, but "be in the box", the box even was not big enough for person to enter into. I also made sentences with that (thinking it has same meaning as 'touch') ■ Don't be in my body. ■ He has hardly been in the ball all game. ■ Who has been in my very cute dolls!? Does it all make sense?

Dec 19, 2014 3:27 PM

Answers · 5

"Be in" doesn't mean "touch" here. "Who has been the box" can be seen as short for, "Whose hand has been in the box." Or "Whose fingers have been in the box?" The "in" means "inside" in the usage "be in". So none of your sentences are right.

December 19, 2014

The box might not be big enough to fit a whole person, but it's big enough for someone to put their hand inside, so it doesn't mean "touch" (although there probably is some touching, but inside). As for your sentences, "in my body", "in the ball" and "in my... dolls" all mean to be inside. The first one sounds sexual. The second one is odd, because you can't really be in a ball, except for maybe when you put your fingers in a bowling ball. The third one is OK if you can go inside the dolls (for example, a matryoshka doll) Also, some of the sentences aren't natural, but I'm just concentrating on the "in" part.

December 19, 2014

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