sat at/infront of

[Bridget]

Would you say "sat at my PC all day" or "sat in front of my PC all day"?

Why do you say "sat in front of the TV" and not "sat at the TV"?

How and when should I use "sat at" and "sat in front of"?

[asrar]

hi bridget

its a very good quistion so

we say we sat infront of the TV, it means there is adistance and you are in front not the back of it.

but we say sat at the table , so no distace and the table doesnt have front or back

I hope this will answer your quistion and if not please let me know

thank u and best luck

ASRAR

[Bridget]

hi bridget

its a very good quistion so

we say we sat infront of the TV, it means there is adistance and you are in front not the back of it.

but we say sat at the table , so no distace and the table doesnt have front or back

I hope this will answer your quistion and if not please let me know

thank u and best luck

ASRAR

I don't think those are the answers I was looking for, asrar.

Obviously, one wouldn't need to say "I was sitting behind my PC all night" often. The two expressions "sat at" and "sat in front of", when used for PCs, and by native speakers, are similar, but I think their meaning is slightly different.

[Pete]

We generally use the preposition "at" to define a location. I'd say that asrar's thought about why we don't use it with television is correct. We watch television from a range of distances and angles, so usually, to say "at the television" would not sound as though it was specifying your location.

With "at the computer", we do get an immediate impression of location: directly in front of the keyboard in a typing position and also positioned where you can directly see the screen. This seems to me to be the most common way to express being at that location.

The phrase "in front of the computer" is not wrong or strange, and I'd say that literally it has the same meaning, but I don't think it is used nearly as often. Maybe because it seems unnecessarily precise, I think it may give extra emphasis to being at the computer. A quick Google search gave me the impression that people tend to use "in front of the computer" when they are being critical of the idea; here's a vivid example:

> The writing is on the wall – computer games rot the brain
> http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/dec2006/rots_brain.html
> "We demand that teachers provide our children with reading skills; we expect the schools to fill them with a love of books; and yet at home we let them slump in front of the consoles. … "

Possibly the common phrase, "in front of the television" makes "in front of the computer" bring to mind using the computer for entertainment like a television.

Certainly not all uses of the phrase are negative; you might also want to show a special emphasis in a sentence like,
- Sit your student directly in front of the computer and place the student's hand on the mouse. Then …

(Disclaimer:These are just "top of the head" thoughts. I've never seen this discussed nor consciously thought about it before.)