I know what the word means, but I’m unsure how to use it in a sentence. In my native language, Danish,“backorder” translates to “Restordre” and when something is unavailable, we say it’s"i Restordre",which translates directly into English as “in backorder”, but I’m not sure that’s correct English. Do English people say that or just “backordered” or something else?
“Backordered” or “On backorder” are the normal usages as an adjective.
But “In backorder” would also be perfectly understandable.
“on backorder”.
“Backorder” is an operational status, so it’s like saying “on fire”, “on duty”, “on order”, or “on patrol”.
I would say “it’s on backorder”. You could verb it as “it’s been backordered”, but that feels a bit clunky somehow.
Everyone was giving the right answer here, but not why. (Edit: oops, must have missed the response by intensely_human!)
The preposition “on” is used with “backorder” because it indicates a state or condition of something. For example, we can say “on fire”, “on hold”, “on sale”, “on hiatus” or “on display” to describe the situation of something.
The preposition “in” is used to show the location or position of something, such as “in the box”, “in the car”, or “in the city”.
The preposition “for” is used to show the purpose or reason of something, such as “for fun”, “for work”, or “for sale”.
Therefore, “on” is the most suitable preposition to use with “backorder”.
(but as someone else noted, you probably wouldn’t confuse anyone if you said “in” or “for”.)
In teresting
Except for “in flux”, as a description of a state of being
That just means “inside the flux capacitor”. Like an abbreviation.
Not necessarily. When a situation is “in flux” it is changing or unstable.
“Sorry, that product is currently on backorder. I can add you to the list if you’d like.”
“The product launch was a huge success, it’s currently backordered!”
You can also use it in place of the word “order”. As in, “I have a Backorder I’d like to check on.”
