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Why is 'in' used before was/were in this sentence from the book Shoe Dog by Phil Knight?

Some Tuesday nights in the Reserves were set aside for classroom time.

It seems like a mistake. Would dropping the in make the sentence ungrammatical? It seems like "Some Tuesday nights the Reserves were set aside for classroom time" means the same thing: that all the army reserves were set aside for classroom time.

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    If in were dropped, the meaning of the sentence would change. Rather than indicating time spent in the Reserves being set aside, it would indicate that the Reserves themselves were set aside. In other words, without the preposition, the implication is that nobody except the students are allowed to enter the Reserves. Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 3:09
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    @JasonBassford Sir, time spent in the Reserves being set aside and Reserves themselves were set aside. It looks like both things have the same meaning. Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 5:14
  • Some Tuesday nights the Reserves were set aside for classroom time. It also means the same thing that all the reseves were set aside for classroom time. Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 5:19
  • @JasonBassford Sir, Its the army reserves which the author is talking about. I've understood your previous point but how will dropping in from this sentence makes in ungrammatical. Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 5:37
  • I've tried to understand it several times by dropping and including 'in' . If you can just elaborate in the sense of army reserves it would be much helpful. Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 5:49

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After clarification from a comment under the question, Reserves is short for Army Reserves. To avoid confusion, I will add that word to the sentence.

Some Tuesday nights in the Army Reserves were set aside for classroom time.

The subject of this sentence is Tuesday nights in the Army Reserves. Or, in simplified form, just Tuesday nights.

It means that some Tuesday nights are used for classroom purposes.


Without the preposition, the construction (and meaning) of the sentence changes:

Some Tuesday nights, the Army Reserves were set aside for classroom time.

The subject is no longer Tuesday nights. Instead, it has changed to the Army Reserves. Without the preposition, some Tuesday nights becomes a dependent clause.

The implication of this sentence is that the Army Reserves, the entire organization, stops what it's doing and all personnel and resources turn to classroom time. But while that's theoretically possible, it's not what actually occurs. So, it's not describing a factual event. It's not actually nonsensical, but it's somewhat ridiculous.


The point of the original sentence is to say that classroom time is scheduled for some Tuesday nights (in the Army Reserves)—it's Tuesday nights that should be the subject of the sentence, not the Army Reserves itself.

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'In' in this context means the equivalent of 'as a member of' - like 'in the army'.

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  • I don't understand what you mean. It seems as if you're saying that "Some Tuesday nights in the Army Reserves ..." should be "Some Tuesday nights members of the Army Reserves were set aside for classroom time". How can "members be set aside for classroom time"?
    – TrevorD
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 23:36
  • @TrevorD. Try this - "In the Reserves, Tuesday nights were set aside for classroom time" which could mean "For members of the Reserves, Tuesday nights were set aside for classroom time". I was merely explaining the use of "in" as that was what the question was about. Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 0:17
  • I knew what the original meant: it was your explanation that I didn't understand! As I indicated, replacing "in" by "as a member of" - which is what I understood you to be suggesting - came up with a ridiculous sentence.
    – TrevorD
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 13:22

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