Learn English with a poem!

Hola Ramos,

Espero que estés bien.:)

Hope you can still get/find my reply :). Let me answer those for you and also for those who might be wondering why this or that preposition was used in the limerick:

1. There are some expressions, where the definite article (“the”) is missing, and then the meaning or the usage is also very specific. That is, there is NO article used in the following expressions with the following meanings:

– If you are “AT SEA”, it means you are on the surface of the sea in a boat or a ship; that is, you are either travelling/sailing or rowing (= pulling oars), or you might be working on a ship or a boat on THE sea (= this is NOT a fixed phrase, so we use the “THE” here).
– If some goods (= products) are “BY SEA”, they are in/on a ship (across THE see), e.g. Our exports always go BY SEA (= the means of transport used). We can also say “BY VESSEL”, which is a large ship (no article used here either). Similarly: BY AIR (= using a plane).

2. You “look AT” someone/their face, but you “look UP TO” the sky/the stars. You can also “look up to SOMEONE”, which is an idiom that means you respect or admire them. All of these are so-called phrasal verbs, so you have to learn them as they are with their definitions and usage. There are some special dictionaries or books for learners that contain only phrasal verbs.

3. If you sing TO a musical instrument, I understand it as that someone (a musician) takes the lead and he/she plays the music/tune on it, and you (only) accompany them by singing, and not the other way round. That is, in some cases, the main “attraction” is maybe the guitar/violin etc. itself, and not the singer’s/choir’s singing.
A real example from the Internet:
“Some of the ‘planned’ things had to be changed….the organist wasn’t there…so we sang to a guitar….”

As for 1&2, I suggest you also check out e.g. Macmillan and Longman dictionaries online.

Hope this helps. Regards,
David