What is the difference between on, over, and above? Conversely what about these three words’ antonyms; off, under, and below? First off, we will only be discussing, on, over, and above, in detail, but if you are interested take these words meanings and reverse them.
On, over, と above の違いは何でしょう。また、各単語の反対言葉はどう言う意味でしょうか：off, under, と below。まずは、最初の３つだけみていきたいと思います：on, over, above. 興味のある方は反対言葉も挑戦して見ましょう。
So why is this interesting? Let’s take a look.
興味深いところがありますが、見て見ましょう。
The cat is on the TV
The cat is over the TV
The cat is above the TV
What do these look like? Do these sentences mean the same thing? Let’s look at the first example which is perhaps the most simple to understand as a picture.
実際にどう言う意味かな？上の文章の意味は全部同じでしょうか？図を使って最初の例を見ましょう。
The cat is on the TV.
Simply put the cat is in contact or is touching with the TV. It might be walking on it, it might be sleeping, it might have just jumped from the floor and landed on it. The cat is now on the TV. My dictionary defines the word "on" like this.
簡単に説明すると、"on"を使うときは、猫が実際にテレビを触れていると言うことです。テレビの上を歩いている、その上に寝ている、またはテレビの上から飛び降りたかもしれません。どう見ても、上の図を見ると猫はテレビの上, "on", にいます。辞書を見ますと、こう書いてあります。
On - Resting on, supported by, resting atop, touching the (upper) surface of…
On - にかけて、に支えて、表面を触れている...
Now we are left with the remaining two words; "over" and "above." Let’s look at the word “over” first, and let’s take another look at the cat.
では、最後の２つの言葉です："over" と "above"。まずは "over" を見て、同じ図を使います。
The cat is over the TV
Here we see that the cat is no longer directly on the top of the TV, but is on a shelf that is located above(we will get to this soon) the TV covering it and perhaps the TV itself. Cats are often sleepy. If we think of these as three objects in relation to one another, the cat is found to be at the top of all three things. As it should be;) Once again, my dictionary defines the word over as follows.
ここでは、猫はテレビの表面に直接乗っていなくて、テレビの上に設置されている棚に乗っかっています。猫、棚、そしてテレビ３つの物がありますが、猫は３つ全ての上にいます。辞書を見ますと、
Over - above, on top of, higher (up) than, atop, covering… wait a second the definition includes the word above… So what does that mean for us?
Over - より上に、より高く、を超える （英語を見ますと、"above" が辞書に出てきます。さてこの言葉の意味は？）
Let’s take a look at the word “above” and our last picture.
最後の図を見て "above" を見ましょう。
The cat is above the TV
As we see the cat is on the shelf with a small plant, but its eyes are over, or should we say "above" the top of the plant. Above should be used to talk about something that is at a higher place than anything else that is possibly being discussed. Certainly there are people who might say that the lights in the room are higher than the cat, and so on. As a general rule, above is to indicate that something in a certain proximity commands the highest point.
図のように、猫は棚に置いてある鉢植えの隣にいますが、鉢植えよりは目が高いので、鉢植えより「上, above」と言います。"Above" を使うときは、話している全ての物よりさらに高い位置にいるものをさしています。ある人は天井や照明よりは低いではないかと言うかもしれませんが、そこまで細かく見ないで、全体の物よりは高い場所にいると考えればよいでしょう。
Once again, here is the definition.
辞書ではこのように書いてあります。 Above - over,higher (up) than;on top of,atop,on,upon.
Above - より上に、より高く、の北の方に