[Lorrivero]

Hi!? Do you say "to the left/right of sth" or "on the right/left of". I found that both possibilities are correct. Is that right?

Thank you

[heliotrope]

I suppose either could be used, however, I would tend to use "to the left/right of..." when speaking of a concept or an idea. Such as: "...to the left of Center."

If I were speaking of a person or an object, I would use "on the left/right of...". Such as: '... on the left side of the building."

Rose

[EVS]

Hi there

Yes and no

If you state that it is left to right, it means that you have to look from the left to the right, and right to left would mean look from the right towards the left.

Regards
Peanuts

[tyrono1]

We are not happy about the answer given by Peanut.

Let us look only at the question originally asked.

In general when we say, in English,

"To the right of X" or "To the left of X" there is

(idiomatically) an implication that the speaker visualises the situation of X as a fixed one he is approaching (moving towards);

"The dog made the driver swerve to the left."

whereas to speak of something "On the left of X" or "On the right of X "

there is a sense (idiomatically) with "on" that the speaker visualises the "something" also as fixed but SEPARATELY in some sort of relation to X .

"The king sat with his eldest son on his right hand"

[TravelingTex]

In constructing online tutorials, I use "...to..." as the directional object of action ("look to", "move to"). On the other hand (couldn't resist ;) ), I use "...on..." as a placement reference. In fact, I just published a sentence quite similar to the title of this post, although not quite so simple.

--Wayne

[wzartv]

Good answer, but do you you realize that this post was last responded to in September of 2004?

[TravelingTex]

So it was overdue... :)

[wzartv]

Haha good point! :)