in Mallorca
at Palma de Mallorca Intl Airport
on an island called Mallorca or is it Majorca?

You arrive on Mallorca, just like you would arrive on Hawaii or Oahu, for instance

I thought one arrives in Hawaii...

and you can arrive on Cyprus.

I'd say you step foot on Majorca but arrive in Majorca

in, at, on

Jacke wie Hose wie es scheint, alles klingt richtig..mehr oder weniger

You arrive in Hawaii if you mean the state of Hawaii, like you would arrive in California. But you would arrive on the island of Hawaii. Or Maui/Oahu/Kauai, etc.

you probably mean 'set foot'

agree with dude;

arrive on an island

arrive in a country/state

aririve at a city/port/airport/station/certain location

...

Good question. It's less clear-cut in English than in German, as far as I know.

In English, it depends partly on whether you're thinking of the island as a destination, or as a physical land mass surrounded by water. Most vacation islands are actually destinations, so you could probably arrive at Majorca. You might say that if you were looking at your itinerary and seeing when you would be where.

If the island happens to be a political entity, you're crossing a border, so you would arrive in it. For example, you definitely arrive in Hawaii if you're referring to the state (which is usually the default). If you think of Majorca in this way, like an independent place, you could also arrive in Majorca. You might say that if talking to someone who was already there, a resident or someone you were going to meet.

'On' suggests a landing from above. In a plane, you could land on Oahu, or on the big island of Hawaii. (The US state is composed of several islands, only one of which, confusingly, is named Hawaii.) But it could sound a little strange, because really you're not landing on the whole island, only the runway at the airport. So, although you could also say arrive on Majorca if you're flying in, that probably wouldn't be my first choice.

When you arrive from the same level, it's 'at.' So in a boat, you would arrive at Majorca, though you could indeed set foot on Majorca after that.

You very definitely do not arrive *to any place in English. You do arrive at the airport, or arrive in Palma.

And you can also just get to Majorca, which is what many of us might say in normal conversation, as 'arrive' is rather formal.

Hope that's sufficiently confusing. My short rule of thumb would be: Even though it's 'auf' in German, it's much less likely to be 'on' in English.

..yes that makes total sense

www.google.de

ach der Thomas

but according to a book I'm reading entitled 'Easter Island History' you can say: A small fleet of 3 Dutch vessels arrived to the island on April 5 of 1722.

@OUTLANDER: Are you sure the book was written by a native speaker of English or isn't quoting English as it was (possibly) used in the 18th century? It's certainly not standard modern English to arrive to anything.

@ Outlander

Whatever book you are referring to was more than likely written by a non-native. If not, then it was written by a poorly educated native who has no natural aptitude for his or her native tongue. So there!

What preposition would you choose if there is no verb, e.G.

"while on holiday in Crete"
"while on holiday on Crete"
"while on holiday at Crete" ?

on Crete

edit: well, actually in Crete would work here, since Crete is a country.

I was just about to post that there is a difference when talking about countries that are also islands, as opposed to islands that are not countries. If it's a country, you can use "in", as for any other country, island or not.

...just a comment: and you still hear non-native speakers say "Oh, English is easy"

But dude, but what if you arrive with Crete? Would that be concrete? (Go away, bob.)

I'll pretend I didn't read that, Bob. ;-)

Crete is a country?

Neither Google Books nor Amazon nor WorldCat lists any books with the title Easter Island History. Google Books is too slow currently to check the phrase that OUTLANDER quotes.

Crete is an island and is part of a country.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete)

@ 19: You must be confusing Crete with Malta - Malta is an island and a country! So, you can arrive on and in Malta. :-)

Let me see if I can summarized what has come before:

For smallish islands, generally "arrive on" and "be on." It's hard to think of an example where this is not OK. He lives on Heligoland, on a tropical isle. "In" sounds funny here.

As the island gets bigger, or has its own political identity, "in" is used in many contexts.

We arrived in Long Island, he lives in Long Island. (Understood to mean the parts of geographic Long Island that are not part of New York City). But you would generally say, "there are three major airports on Long Island" because two are in NYC and one outside -- geographic, not political.

He lives in Greenland. He arrived in Iceland. He lives in Cyprus. (My ears say it would be odd to use "on" for Greenland and Iceland, but for Cyprus, "on" would be OK.) For geography, "on" is also OK. There are many volcanos on and around Iceland.

Generally:
We vacationed on Bermuda = on the island of Bermuda.
We vacationed in Bermuda = in the country of Bermuda, but on any island.

Group of islands: Generally "in." We vacationed in the Shetland Islands, in the Bahamas. "On" sounds funny here.

There is lots of overlap, and there are lots of fixed expressions.

@#s 26 & 27: No, I was actually confusing Crete with Cyprus. My bad.