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He sat under the shade of a tree.
He sat in the shade of a tree.
Why is the first sentence wrong?
This was a question on an exam where I was given a sentence to fill up with appropriate preposition. The question was:
He sat UNDER/IN/INTO/ON the shade of a tree.
The answer to this is IN the shade of a tree but I am not sure why? Because I marked UNDER the shade of a tree.
I suppose it's because the object of the preposition is not 'tree' (in which case you would use 'under'), but 'shade', and 'the shade of the tree' is either the three-dimensional space you can be in and have the shadow of the tree fall on you, or the area on the ground where the shadow falls. In either case, it's something you sit in, rather than under.
We often think of shadow as lying on the the ground. As he sits within the area that is shaded, he is still clearly visible and simply appears to be sitting in the shade that surrounds him.
To be under something visible, it would have to be above him. He is sitting under the tree whose branches extend above him.
Because you sit under the branch of the tree, but the shade isn't over you. It’s around you and on the ground. So you sit in the shadow of the shade.
