I know what the word means, but I’m unsure how to use it in a sentence. In my native language, Danish,“backorder” translates to “Restordre” and when something is unavailable, we say it’s"i Restordre",which translates directly into English as “in backorder”, but I’m not sure that’s correct English. Do English people say that or just “backordered” or something else?

  • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Everyone was giving the right answer here, but not why. (Edit: oops, must have missed the response by intensely_human!)

    The preposition “on” is used with “backorder” because it indicates a state or condition of something. For example, we can say “on fire”, “on hold”, “on sale”, “on hiatus” or “on display” to describe the situation of something.

    The preposition “in” is used to show the location or position of something, such as “in the box”, “in the car”, or “in the city”.

    The preposition “for” is used to show the purpose or reason of something, such as “for fun”, “for work”, or “for sale”.

    Therefore, “on” is the most suitable preposition to use with “backorder”.

    (but as someone else noted, you probably wouldn’t confuse anyone if you said “in” or “for”.)