Hi, tobias. I think your editor is wrong. Click on is what one says and sit onto a table sounds suspiciously Denglish. If we English speakers made a distinction routinely between "sit on a table" and "sit onto a table", we would presumably not struggle with the distinction in German. You can climb onto a table, but that "onto" doesn't necessarily work with other verbs. In my opinion click and sit don't work with "onto".

Agree with Amy regarding "click on a button".

I find "sit onto a table" for "am Tisch sitzen" just plain weird, from both English and German perspectives. The phrase yields all of 338 results in a Google search and the sites don't look like anything I'd rely on for proper usage of English.

If you search for "sit at the table" (AFAIK the only possible translation for "am Tisch sitzen") with a UK qualifier, you get 9,880,000 hits. If you search for "sit onto the table", you get exactly 0 (!) hits.

Agree with what they say. Also, why not simply "click a button"?

I agree with previous comments. I would actually "press a/the button" / "push a/the button".

Wo befindet sich dieser "Lektor", tobias?

I assumed Tobias was clicking with his mouse or touchpad. Not?

"sit on a table" = auf einem Tisch sitzen, sich auf einen Tisch hinsetzen
"sit at a table" = an einem Tisch sitzen, sich an einen Tisch hinsetzen

"sit onto a table" = not correct. You use 'onto' or 'into' with certain verbs that describe a movement of your entire body from one place to another:

He climbed on(to) the table.
She got in(to) the bus.
The cat jumped onto my lap.

You don't sit onto or sit into things, as when you sit you are just changing position, not moving your whole body from A to B.

"I clicked onto the button" = not correct. If anything that would mean "Ich klickte mich auf den Knopf".

You use 'onto' or 'into' with certain verbs that describe a movement of your entire body from one place to another

Ist das wirklich streng auf solche Fälle beschränkt? Ich hätte vermutet, man kann auch sagen:
Put your clothes into the wardrobe!
We put the cups onto the table.
She looked into the cabinet.
Mag sein, dass das alles auch mit einfachem in bzw. on geht oder sogar besser ist, aber falsch sind diese Beispiele doch nicht, oder?

#8 I was thinking of 'sit onto' and why that doesn't work - because when you are talking about bodily movements, 'onto' means moving your entire body. Of course you can also use 'into' and 'onto' in other contexts.

('Put into/onto' sounds a bit odd to me in those examples.)

#0: "click on" oder "click onto"?

"Click onto" sounds completely wrong.

@#8. "put into/onto" are fine in American English, in those contexts.

Put your clothes into the wardrobe!
etc.
That's what most of us would say, but maybe grammarians would say it should be "into" - let's wait and see :-)

Put your clothes into the wardrobe!
etc.
That's what most of us would say,

Most of us would say what? I'd say "Put your clothes in the wardrobe!"

Oh! I got it the wrong way round :-((((((

again:

Put your clothes in the wardrobe!
etc.
That's what most of us would say, but maybe grammarians would say it should be "into" - let's wait and see :-)

@CM2DD
'Ich setze mich an den Tisch.' und
'Ich sitze am Tisch.'
drücken im Deutschen zwei verschiedene Sachen aus. Das erste beschreibt den Übergang von der stehenden in die sitzende Position (üblicherweise bewegt sich hier der ganze Körper) und mit dem zweiten Satz wird die Tätigkeit des Sitzens / das Ergebnis des Hinsetzens beschrieben. Oder irre ich mich?
Allerdings würde ich diesen Unterschied auch im Englischen nicht durch ein onto ausdrücken…

Oxford sagt "click on" http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/engl...
Merriam Webster sagt "click on" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/click

In der Diskussion hast du gewonnen. Ich habe in einem kanadischen Softwareunternehmen gearbeitet und dabei tausende Seiten Doku gelesen. Dabei ist mir immer "click on" oder auch nur "click" begegnet und niemals "click onto".

@ mikefm #14

Unser Lehrer (mit entsprechenden Grammatiken in Hinterhand) hat uns mit "in" vs "into" entsetzlich getriezt, wobei wir "put" als absolute Ausnahme lernen mussten ("put" verlange halt immer "in", auch wenn man logischerweise "into" sagen müsste). Aber warum es eine Ausnahme ist, - das weiß der Geier.

Und von hm--us habe ich gerade gelernt, dass es sich auch bei "go" im Sinne vom deutschen "gehören" ähnlich verhält:

That goes in the top drawer.

Allerdings kann bei letzterem eine unterschiedliche Sichtweise eine Rolle spielen: Engl. statisch (der richtige Platz, in der Schublade), während wir den Blick auf die Aktion richten: zielgerichtete Bewegung. Aber ich denke, bei "put" haben auch alle Englischsprachigen die Aktion vor Augen. Es ist also eine andere Baustelle als "go in".

Aber vielleicht weiß ja noch jemand etwas.

I recommend against relying on #11, at least for onto.

more about "in/into"; I think, put takes "into" at least more commonly, in "put the fork into the lamb...", "put the fork into the soil..." e.g. or is that "just me"? The action is somehow emphasized/described?

Here's the other recent thread:

related discussion: the luggage that goes onto the plane ...

I too think CM2DD's description in #9 is less misleading than #11. 'Onto' and 'into' are in many contexts at least considerably less idiomatic than 'in' and 'on.'

This is a very tricky thing to try to explain, so it doesn't surprise me that even advanced ESL instruction may not cover it well. (I wonder what that person whose name I forget and whose book I don't have with me has to say about it. Michael, Martin, Greenberg, something? Someone please read my fuzzy mind ...)

But since dirk asks, no, I probably wouldn't use 'into' or 'onto' in any of his examples in #8. They're not wrong in the sense of unthinkable, but they definitely stand out as not typical. CM2DD is probably right that with an ordinary verb like 'put,' an ordinary object, and an expected place, we would normally just use 'in' and 'on,' at least in normal conversation as opposed to unusually formal diction.

>>Put your clothes into the wardrobe!

To me it's really more idiomatic to save 'into' for things where the mental image of the final location is more emphatically 'inside,' like closing something up safely or tightly inside something else that's smaller, cozier, deeper. Better examples:

Put the test tubes into the centrifuge.
He reached down into his pocket.
She fitted the last mamushka doll into the nest.

>>We put the cups onto the table.

There it's really more idiomatic to save 'onto' for things that require more lifting and/or upward movement.

Can you lift the patient onto the operating table?
I can't get this heavy box from the floor (up) onto the bed.
The cat jumped onto the desk.

>>She looked into the cabinet.

That, too. would sound more idiomatic with a different word expressing more the idea of depth, darkness, difficulty, etc.

He peered into the dim wardrobe but couldn't make out anything inside it.
She looked (down) into the well to see if she could see the bottom.
I wasn't aware of the problem, but give me a day or two and I'll look into it.

At least in AE, you can also use 'inside' and 'on top of' as prepositions, and those tend to be more idiomatic with everyday things at home.

You can just set the mugs there on top of the microwave.
Put all your toys and clothes inside your closet, not lying around out in the open all over everything!
No, no, I meant inside the buffet, not on top of it.
I even looked inside all the cabinets and drawers, not just here on the counter where it usually stays, but I still can't find the wine stopper.
Actually that bowl usually goes up on top of the cabinet, not inside it.

(Again, with 'goes' meaning 'sits/stays/rests,' which is how we understand 'belongs,' unlike 'gehören' with direction which takes the accusative.)

Hope that helps at least somewhat. I'm actually not sure how to express the difference in German; would you maybe need to add a word like 'hinein' or 'hinauf'?

hm--us

In den meisten Fällen scheint mir dass im Deutschen der Unterschied mit dem Verb deutlich gemacht wird:
sitzen - setzen, liegen - legen, stehen - stellen, etc

"Click/push/press the button" would do the job in almost any pomp, ducks, and circumstances. As "click the link", "check the mark", "stay there" would work perfectly.

Vielen Dank für die vielen detaillierten Antworten :-) ! Gut, dann schließe ich mich nun definitiv der Mehrheitsmeinung "click on a button" an und bedanke mich für die Infos.

@Ffive: Die Lektorin ist Deutsche, lebte allerdings lange Zeit in den USA und hat dort auch Englisch studiert.

@hm--us: Danke für #20! Das ist wirklich hilfreich.

Ich hab das Thema irgendwie im Kopf behalten, und mir sind dabei einige native-speaker Posts in Foren aufgefallen, die "click AT the button" geschrieben haben. Ich fand und finde das irgendwie daneben und falsch, wollte es aber trotzdem erwähnen :)

For me, click at the button would mean, when you see the button, it's time to click.
Or, possibly: Take a wild shot at clicking in the general direction of the button.