# Why do people use the question "Where is it at?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843 "2020-02-12T22:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/21 "2020-02-13T19:04:43Z")
> [@dan39](#): > > I grew up in southern Ontario and moved to British Columbia about 30 years ago. While living in Ontario I never heard anyone ever use ask the question “Where is it at?” when inquiring where something is or went until I moved to BC. > > In a slightly different context, some people here will say, “Where is _that_ at?” when asking for directions or where an object might be located. Because it’s a perfectly valid construction, no different from _What’s it near?_ or _What’s it next to?_ > [@](#): > > The proper question is, “Where is it?”, or “Where is that?” or perhaps a more precise question might be, “Where is that located?” I’ve never ended that question with the word “at”! > > Where does this term come from, and why do people only on the west coast say this? It’s not only slightly annoying, it makes me wince every time I hear either of them and I feel like correcting the person who asked the question, but feel it’s not my place to do so. There’s nothing for you to wince at. Nothing to correct. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/22 "2020-02-13T21:49:39Z")
Hearing this used in context, adding “at” to the end of the sentence is not arbitrary. It implies that you aren’t simply requesting info, but you are seeking the location for a specific purpose. If someone asks me, “Where are the scissors,” they may be just curious or they may need them. It’s ambiguous. Maybe they just want to be sure that they are put away in their proper place for safety, or can be accounted for in the near future. If they say, “Where are the scissors at,” it is implied that they are seeking the scissors for urgent use. I think of it like adding “very” as a vague adjective. It’s subjective but not meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/23 "2020-02-13T22:52:03Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Hearing this used in context, adding “at” to the end of the sentence is not arbitrary. It implies that you aren’t simply requesting info, but you are seeking the location for a specific purpose. > > If someone asks me, “Where are the scissors,” they may be just curious or they may need them. It’s ambiguous. Maybe they just want to be sure that they are put away in their proper place for safety, or can be accounted for in the near future. If they say, “Where are the scissors at,” it is implied that they are seeking the scissors for urgent use. > > I think of it like adding “very” as a vague adjective. It’s subjective but not meaningless. Agreed. I think that is in line with my Palace of Westminster example above. If someone asks “Where is that?” it is a more general question, really just for conversation or knowledge, not for some immediate useful purpose. If someone asks “Where is that at?” then I would think that they have some semi-urgent purpose for a more definition location as they may be planning a trip soon. Similar to your scissors example, if someone asked “Where are the scissors?” I would probably say “in the kitchen.” If they asked “Where are the scissors at?” I would probably say, “in the kitchen, drawers by the stove, third drawer down, probably underneath the 50 ketchup packets.” ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/24 "2020-02-13T22:54:40Z")
I was taught that ending a sentence with a preposition was an indication of lack of intelligence for not using proper grammar, by an elementary school English teacher. Whenever students would forget and ask “Where is this thing at?” etc. She would respond “between the A and the T.” For whatever reason it made an impression on me. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/25 "2020-02-13T23:03:40Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > I was taught that ending a sentence with a preposition was an indication of lack of intelligence for not using proper grammar, by an elementary school English teacher. Used to be a lot of that bullshit flying around back in the day. Not so much now, at least not that I’ve seen recently. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/26 "2020-02-13T23:10:01Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > I was taught that ending a sentence with a preposition was an indication of lack of intelligence for not using proper grammar, by an elementary school English teacher. > > Whenever students would forget and ask “Where is this thing at?” etc. She would respond “between the A and the T.” > > For whatever reason it made an impression on me. I was taught the same thing and so were many others, including apparently the OP. Because of that, many people look down on those who end sentences with prepositions. As a result, people who want to succeed in business or in other public ventures know this, and refrain from ending their sentences with prepositions. People who do not run the risk of being looked down upon because they do not conform their style to this social convention. It is self-propagating. This is the case even if it is technically correct to end a sentence with a preposition. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/27 "2020-02-14T01:11:39Z")
“Ain’t it hard when you discover that He really wasn’t Where It’s At…” -R. Zimmerman I think it was Tom Paxton who wrote that “where it’s at” means “rich”. Meanwhile, we have temporal displacement. “Where is it from?” ==\> looking back. “Where is it going?” ==\> looking forward. “Where is it at?” ==\> looking right now. “Is it where it’s at?” ==\> so retro! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/28 "2020-02-14T03:04:44Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I was taught the same thing and so were many others, including apparently the OP. Because of that, many people look down on those who end sentences with prepositions. As a result, people who want to succeed in business or in other public ventures know this, and refrain from ending their sentences with prepositions. People who do not run the risk of being looked down upon because they do not conform their style to this social convention. It is self-propagating. > > This is the case even if it is technically correct to end a sentence with a preposition. I feel like the “don’t end a sentence with a preposition” superstition is fading, thankfully. Same with split infinitives. It’s taken a long time, but we’re finally getting there. (Hell, H.W. Fowler, a grammarian’s grammarian if there ever was one, dismissed it as a “cherished superstition” back in freaking _1925_. And almost a hundred years later, there are still some folk who cleave to this silly “rule,” but, thankfully, they are becoming a minority.) I didn’t interpret the OP’s issue as being one of ending a sentence with a preposition so much as the “at” being redundant and unnecessary. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/29 "2020-02-14T03:40:13Z")
FWIW, Turkish does the same thing, in effect. In Turkish, ne means ‘what’ and -_re_ is a combining form meaning ‘place’. So that _nere_ by itself means ‘what place’, i.e. ‘where’. Except the normal way to ask “where” in Turkish is “_nerede_?” The -_de_ is the locative case ending that means ‘at’. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/30 "2020-02-14T04:14:34Z")
> [@dan39](#): > > I grew up in southern Ontario and moved to British Columbia about 30 years ago. While living in Ontario I never heard anyone ever use ask the question “Where is it at?” … I grew up in southern Ontario too, (now eastern Ontario) and it grates my ears as well. It’s not a west coast thing at all. Watch any episode of “Cops” and I swear, every cop uses this pattern: Where’s your ID at?," “Where do you live at?.” If you’re not used to it it’s jarring. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/31 "2020-02-14T04:26:00Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I grew up in southern Ontario too, (now eastern Ontario) and it grates my ears as well. > It’s not a west coast thing at all. Watch any episode of “Cops” and I swear, every cop uses this pattern: Where’s your ID at?," “Where do you live at?.” > > If you’re not used to it it’s jarring. Here in the Chicago area (and I believe going up into Wisconsin and perhaps Minnesota), we have the construction “come with” as in “Can I come with?” instead of perhaps the more usual “Can I come along”. I believe it comes from the German verb _mitkommen_. I never realized that it was an unusual construction until college, when I started mingling with people from other parts of the States and world. The “at” ending of location interrogatives is pretty normal here, too. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/32 "2020-02-14T13:09:31Z")
> [@dan39](#): > > Thank you to all who responded! Your time and effort have been very much appreciated! I have learned so much. Yeah, I had to turn my thinking around like this back when I learned that “to ax” instead of “to ask” was a long-used expression, dating back over 1000 years, and had always been the standard term for large subsections of the english-speaking population when it wasn’t the actual majority term. So now I save my upset for inappropriate apostrophe use. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/33 "2020-02-14T14:03:28Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Yeah, I had to turn my thinking around like this back when I learned that “to ax” instead of “to ask” was a long-used expression, dating back over 1000 years, and had always been the standard term for large subsections of the english-speaking population when it wasn’t the actual majority term. > > So now I save my upset for inappropriate apostrophe use. 😃 I know! Nothing grates like unnecessary apostrophe’s, right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/34 "2020-02-14T14:59:00Z")
Well, what had happened was… ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/35 "2020-02-14T17:03:28Z")
I do get a bit annoyed if someone asks me, “Where is the ATM machine at?” 😃 For those who find it redundant (and I understand the reasoning), are these questions also containing redundancies? “Where is it currently?” “Where is it located?” To me the first question implies that something has moved recently, so it’s not entirely redundant. But removing the word “currently” shouldn’t change the answer, unless the answer might be, “It moves around and its location depends on the time and date.” I think in the second question the word “located” just means the same thing as “at”, it just sounds a bit more elegant. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/36 "2020-02-14T17:23:58Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > …For those who find it redundant (and I understand the reasoning), are these questions also containing redundancies? > > “Where is it currently?”… What, you mean at this moment in time? j ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/37 "2020-02-14T17:29:14Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > What, you mean at this moment in time? > > j Yes. And we need to know sooner, rather than later. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/38 "2020-02-14T18:48:44Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Yeah, I had to turn my thinking around like this back when I learned that “to ax” instead of “to ask” was a long-used expression, dating back over 1000 years, and had always been the standard term for large subsections of the english-speaking population when it wasn’t the actual majority term. > > So now I save my upset for inappropriate apostrophe use. 😃 You remember that line from “The Stone Troll”: _Said Tom: “I don’t see why the likes o’ thee Without axin’ leave should go makin’ free”_ Ax for ask is way older than 1,000 years; it goes back through Old English clear through Proto-Germanic and all the way back to Proto-Into-European. The k and s in that verb have been dancing the do-si-do for 5,000 years now. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/39 "2020-02-17T08:16:19Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Are you under the impression that this somehow demonstrates the wrongness of the construction? A hypothetical dumbass grammar school kid could equally well respond to “Where is it?” by saying “It’s after the is”. Edited to conform with logic. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843/40 "2020-02-17T15:33:11Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@Dereknocue67](#): > > Edited to conform with logic. Even though this is common on other message boards, DO NOT edit the text within quote boxes here, even if you do clearly indicate that you are doing so. For complete rules regarding quote boxes, see the FAQ at the top of ATMB. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-the-question-where-is-it-at/847843.md?page=3)