Do I have to use "on" or "at" in the following sentence?

Question

If you have a look at the spreading of the German language on the whole globe, you will consider that...

Is spreading the right word in this case?
on the globe or at the globe?
Would u write whole globe or just globe?

...that German holds the biggest number of speakers and learners in Europe.

Answer 1

Remember that a globe is round. "On" the globe doesn't work. "Over" the globe and "across" the globe don't, either. You don't need to say "whole globe" when "globe" by itself makes it clear what you're talking about. I'm with hotmama3712 on this one.

Answer 2

Presumably you'd like to keep as much of your original phrasing in tact. So let's break it down and see what needs fixin'!

Using "have a look at" is superfluous. It is a lengthier way to say "look at" that gains you nothing other than a more colloquial style of language use.

Using the gerund "spreading" instead of the more simple noun form "spread" seems like a similar excess. However, I do not believe it is grammatically incorrect to use the gerund as you have in this case. If your intent is to emphasize the active nature of the event then by all means use the gerund.

Using "the whole globe" is again...you guessed it, excessive. Why "the whole globe"? Why not just "the globe"? Is there some reason you want to emphasis the entirety of the globe? if not, using "the whole globe" can be a distraction to the reader either because it suggests there is some contrast being made (e.g., "the whole globe" as opposed to "some of the globe") or because it sounds somewhat childish.

The preposition - "on", "at" or "across"? Which to use?
Consider the slight differences in the following phrases:
i. "The spreading of jelly on the toast..."
ii. "The speading of jelly at the toast..."
iii. "The spreading of jelly across the toast..."
In (i) we're just putting some jelly on some toast. This is a very standard way of describing the act of jelly going on toast.
In (ii), we have a pragmatic anomoly. The nature of spreading jelly is such that it would be hard to imagine how one would spread it at something. You could throw jelly at something, wave jelly at something (maybe), or squirt jelly at something. Spreading seems to select a certain set of modifiers which exclude action at or towards.
(iii) is similar to (i) except here we are emphasizing where the jelly ends up. In (i) we could just spread jelly on a part of the toast. In (iii), the jelly really seems to end up all over the toast.

Therefore, I think you want "across".

So, staying as close to your original phrasing as possible while avoiding the pragmatically odd or overly casual constructions, we get "If you look at the spreading of the German language across the globe..."
which to me still reads a little awkward due to the syntactic acrobatics necessary to accomodate the gerund. I'd go with "...look at the spread of the German language across the globe..."

Answer 3

I would say "...look at the spreading of the German language OVER the whole globe..."
use the preposition 'over' when you are talking about covering a surface.
Everything else in your sentence is fine, but maybe a little too wordy, which suggests you are not comfortable with the language and are trying to compensate by using a lot of words.

Answer 4

Try this out:

If you take a look at how the German language has spread across the globe, you will consider....

Answer 5

Try one of these
If you look at the spreading of the german language across the globe

They way the german language has spread across the whole globe

If you look at they way the german laguage has spread across the entire world/Globe

Answer 6

Try this:

"When you look at the spread of the German language over the globe, you will notice that...."

I think that's what you're trying to say.

Answer 7

See if this works for you:

If you are aware of how extensively the German language has spread over the entire globe, ...

If you use these words, you should remember to put a comma at the end of the "if" part of a sencence.

Answer 8

The sentence is awkward whether you use on or at. It would be better to say:
When you become aware of how the German language has spread throughout the globe .............

Answer 9

If you look at how widespread the German language is around the world(globe), you will see that.

Answer 10

avoid the 2nd person maybe.
Considering the ever-expanding use of the German language over the entire globe, it is possible to conisder that......