I have progressed pretty far in Japanese, but when I construct Japanese sentences, I still get these two particles mixed up. For example, when talking about being inside something, I don't know when to use "の中に" and when to use "の中で." Likewise, when speaking about being next to something, I sometimes don't know if I should use "となりに" or "となりで." How do you know which one to use in a sentence?
Which of these is correct?
部屋の中に泣いている。
or
部屋の中で泣いている。
Answer
In general, で is where an action is performed and に is the "direction" toward/to/into which the result of an action happens.
- 部屋の中で泣いています → I'm crying in the room / "The place where I'm at while I'm crying is in the room"
- 部屋の中に泣いています → I'm crying into the room (meaning like, your tears are flowing from your face into the room). This doesn't make sense unless you happen to be talking about where your tears flow when you cry. In the case of the English saying "crying in my beer", ビールの中に泣いています would make sense, although that's an idiom that you probably wouldn't directly translate.
The other example
- 部屋の中にいます → I'm in the room ("My existence results in something being in the room (namely, me)" -- ??)
- 部屋の中でいます → "The place where I am doing my existence is the room" - Since existing is not really a (one-time) "performable" action, this doesn't make sense.
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