You put your naughty child on time out at (in?) the end of the room for example, and then when the time of punishment is up you want them back with you. How do you address them and tell them to come and join you?
Are these two sentences: "come out of there", or simply "come out there"
- correct or incorrect
- natural or awkward
What do you personally say at home (of course if you use this kind of parental discipline)?
PS: By the way, is it at the end of the room, or in the end of the room?
Answer
I would probably say:
"Okay, it's time to come out."
or:
"Your timeout is over now; come on out."
I think "come out there" sounds very awkward. "Come out of there" is passable, but I see that being used when you're sharply telling someone to come out of some enclosed area, like a large box, a swimming pool, or a doghouse:
"Joey! Come out of there! Right now!"
As for at vs in (the end of the room), most timeouts are given in the corner of a room. In fact, if you look up "in the corner" on Google images, you'll see several pictures like this one:
If the child is to stand in the corner, then the preposition is indeed in:
"Go stand in the corner."
However, if the child is supposed to stand somewhere along the middle of a wall in the room, and you wanted to call that location the "end of the room," I would probably use at:
"Go stand at the end of the room."
(For some reason, that makes me imagine a room that is more rectangular than square, where the punished child is to stand at the wall with the shorter end that is furthest away from the door – like where I've put the red ‘X’ is this blueprint:
That's where I'd go stand, if you told me to stand "at the end of the room."
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