The team ran between the oval or onto the oval?

Answer 1

First of all, you can't say "between the oval" - an oval is one shape and only one. For "between" you would have to have TWO things to be or go between. Second, the correct answer depends on what "the oval" is. Is it a specific place or a shape. I would say "into the oval" if it is a shape. If objects were placed so that they formed an oval shape, a team of people could collect within that oval space. They could go "into the oval." But "onto" would require there be a platform or something to step ON. An oval is a shape, an arrangement, not usually something you can step "onto." Keep in mind: With prepositions - like: on, in, beside, with, within, onto, through - think of a table or a door. Try in your head forming combinations like "on the table," "in the table," "through the door," or "beside the table." Those words are prepositions if you can use them like that. And the "door" or "table" or whatever noun you can use, well, that's the "object". (Have you heard the phrase "The object of the preposition"? They go together; a preposition has to have an object. Together they form a prepositional phrase: "beside the table" = "beside" the what? - the "table".