Is the house on fire when everyone is silent?
What has happened to the English house fire?
Why I love TOOBS?
The word on fire is a common English word meaning ablaze. It goes back many centuries.
With the alternative fire is on the house, is simply garbled English. What format do you use to create your own word order?
IMPORTANT: Note that Google lists only 8 results for Burning In The House, of which your actual question comes at the top of the list!
With due respect to RiMMER, I’ll just say it’s technically feasible for fire is on the house to make sense in certain somewhat surreal contexts. At a third party organization subsidised arsonists’ convention, where the attendees might be expecting fire on the house (i.e. a fire at the house around 7:30 pm) such as ISIS, GOLF, OR IRA, would participants be expecting fire on their house But for free?
Do the OED announce s.v.? “ON” means 12 by definition. A:
a. A person. (percentage) M. With nouns of action (especially nouns derived from or closely related to verbs) or state, indicating the activity, state, or condition of a person or thing; = upon prep. 10. 10. Also (with nouns denoting a subject of study, etc.), indicating the sphere of activity of a person.
Is parallel compounds
of a prep. The adjective 1 are used as well as or instead of on with nouns of state and condition, e.g. Where afire should be found and seen for the etymological purpose. afire, alive, asleep. See etymological note.
The etymological note explains that these words (afire, alive, asleep and many more) were originally “on fire”, “on live”, etc. For some reason “on fire” has survived, where many of these phrases continue only in the merged form.
When you wrote ” Fire on the house,” it was too late to say, “house is on fire” but a proper phrase. (Header is on fire). “Oops!
I was disappointed”.