in a position vs. on a position
I recently corrected a student's writing and they had the following sentence:

"Sometimes the AI drew a weird picture such as too big eyes or a mouth on the wrong position"

I automatically corrected the sentence to:

"Sometimes the AI drew a weird picture such as big eyes or a mouth in the wrong position"

I tried explaining that the preposition in this case should be 'in' because 'on' in this context carries the meaning that the mouth is something that is being physically held and placed on a spot that is not the right position. However technically you can say "I have lipstick on my face". Does anyone know why 'in position' in this case sounds correct? Is it an exception that 'in' occurs in co-location with 'position'?

I appreciate any feedback.

Question

in a position vs. on a position
I recently corrected a student's writing and they had the following sentence:

"Sometimes the AI drew a weird picture such as too big eyes or a mouth on the wrong position"

I automatically corrected the sentence to:

"Sometimes the AI drew a weird picture such as big eyes or a mouth in the wrong position"

I tried explaining that the preposition in this case should be 'in' because 'on' in this context carries the meaning that the mouth is something that is being physically held and placed on a spot that is not the right position. However technically you can say "I have lipstick on my face". Does anyone know why 'in position' in this case sounds correct?  Is it an exception that 'in' occurs in co-location with 'position'?

I appreciate any feedback.

Answer

for your context it would be
"in the wrong position" 
or
"on the wrong part of the face"

Answer

When something is "in position" it is in the correct location. "On position" is wrong.
Well, except that if you have a dial with settings of "Off" and "On", you could say in that case that the dial is in the "On" position.

Answer

it's like 'a punch in the face' or 'a pat on the head'  or
'a dent in the side' or ' a scratch on the side'

It's simply the ides of being 'in(side)' something ( a mouth is part of a face, after all, not a stick-on tatoo)

P.S.  the 'such as' part was also a mistake, ha ha.
:)

Non perdere l'opportunità di imparare una lingua comodamente da casa tua. Esplora la nostra selezione di insegnanti di lingue esperti e iscriviti subito alla tua prima lezione!