English Translation
I beat him at golf.
I noticed a sentence on Tatoeba which says “Ken hat mich im Schach geschlagen” whereas this sentence uses “beim Golf”. not “im Golf”. is there a reason/rule for the respective use of "beim"or “im”?
It’s hard to tell the difference.
I’d say you use “in/im” when talking about a discipline or a school subject, and “bei/beim” when it’s about a game or a sport.
So you could use “bei” for chess as well, but for some reason “im Golf” sounds weird.
Another thing I feel is that “in” is a more general statement than “bei”:
“Ken hat mich im Schach geschlagen” sounds like Ken is generally a better chess player, while “Ken hat mich beim Schach geschlagen” sounds like he only beat me at one game of chess.
2 Likes