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 Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:19 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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I'd say:
"What' s on your mind?" = What's troubling/worrying you?
"What's in your mind?" = What are you thinking about? |
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Molly
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| Sun Aug 17, 2008 17:08 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Thanks, Molly! Love, jee.gaetz |
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Jee.gaetz
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| Sun Aug 17, 2008 17:12 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| I do believe your explanation makes sense. Then, this hits me; Willie Nelson's song, "You're always on my mind"? Does this mean the speaker is worried about this person? " I think here, in this song, it means "He is always thinking about her. " or " He can't get her out of his mind...."???? jee.gaetz |
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Jee.gaetz
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:19 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Molly wrote: | I'd say:
"What' s on your mind?" = What's troubling/worrying you?
"What's in your mind?" = What are you thinking about? |
I whole heartedly disagree with this. "What's on your mind?" means BOTH "What's bothering you?" AND "What are you thinking about?"
The second one actually makes no sense to me whatsoever as a native speaker. I mean, it doesn't sound *completely* wrong, but I can't think of any context in which someone would say it. |
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Taeglich
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:54 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Taeglich wrote: | | The second one actually makes no sense to me whatsoever as a native speaker. I mean, it doesn't sound *completely* wrong, but I can't think of any context in which someone would say it. |
I guess you'd have to ask these people:
Googled. 207,000 English pages for "what's in your mind". |
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Molly
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:59 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Molly wrote: | | Taeglich wrote: | | The second one actually makes no sense to me whatsoever as a native speaker. I mean, it doesn't sound *completely* wrong, but I can't think of any context in which someone would say it. |
I guess you'd have to ask these people:
Googled. 207,000 English pages for "what's in your mind". |
There's nearly 2,000,000 pages for "What's on your mind", and 42,000,000 without the quotes. |
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Taeglich
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:03 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Taeglich wrote: | | There's nearly 2,000,000 pages for "What's on your mind", and 42,000,000 without the quotes. |
I'm not sure what that has to do with this. |
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Molly
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:39 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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Hi,
'In your mind' suggests to me the idea of intention. In other words: What's in your mind? is akin to: What have you in mind? What are you proposing?
Alan
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Alan
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:41 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Alan wrote: | Hi,
'In your mind' suggests to me the idea of intention. In other words: What's in your mind? is akin to: What have you in mind? What are you proposing?
Alan |
I agree.
"What's in your mind regarding next Saturday and Jon's visit?", for example. |
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Molly
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 14:30 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Molly wrote: | | Googled. 207,000 English pages for "what's in your mind". |
Doing an advanced Google search drastically reduces the number of results for "What's in your mind".  |
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Yankee
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 16:38 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Molly wrote: | | Taeglich wrote: | | There's nearly 2,000,000 pages for "What's on your mind", and 42,000,000 without the quotes. |
I'm not sure what that has to do with this. |
... What point were you trying to prove in the first place, then? |
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Taeglich
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 22:34 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Yankee wrote: | | Molly wrote: | | Googled. 207,000 English pages for "what's in your mind". |
Doing an advanced Google search drastically reduces the number of results for "What's in your mind". |
Which means? |
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Molly
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| Mon Aug 18, 2008 22:35 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Taeglich wrote: | | ... What point were you trying to prove in the first place, then? |
You said that you couldn't think of a context in which the phrase could be used. I provided some. |
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Molly
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| Tue Aug 19, 2008 0:03 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| jee.gaetz wrote: | | "You're always on my mind"? Does this mean the speaker is worried about this person? " I think here, in this song, it means "He is always thinking about her. " or " He can't get her out of his mind...." |
Good point.
Although "...in one's mind" can be used to imply "in one's thoughts", "...on one's mind" does not necessarily involve trouble or worry.
As for the "207,000 English pages", big numbers on Google are meaningless: we are not permitted to see result #1001, and so can't verify that it's not a (near-)duplicate of one of the other results.
Cf. the comment on the last page:
| Quote: | In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 678 already displayed.
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MrP |
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MrPedantic
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