Day 3 - 4

A. Prepositions of Time (on, in, at)

(1) The preposition AT is used in the following descriptions of time:

With clock times:

• My last train leaves at 10:30.
• We left at midnight.
• The meeting starts at two thirty.

With specific times of day, or mealtimes:

• He doesn’t like driving at night.
• I’ll go shopping at lunchtime.
• I like to read the children a story at bedtime.

With festivals/holidays/national days:

• Are you going home at Christmas/Easter?
• I have a great time at the CES in Vegas this year. Didn't you?

In certain fixed expressions which refer to specific points in time:

• Are you leaving at the weekend?**
• She’s working at the moment.
• He’s unavailable at present.
• I finish the course at the end of April.
• We arrived at the same time.

**Note that in American English, on the weekend is the correct form.

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(2) The preposition IN is used in the following descriptions of time:

With months, years, seasons, and longer periods of time:

• I was born in 1965.
• We’re going to visit them in May.
• The pool is closed in winter.
• He was famous in the 1980’s.
• The play is set in the Middle Ages.
• They’ve done work for me in the past.

With periods of time during the day:

• He’s leaving in the morning.
• She usually has a sleep in the afternoon(s).
• I tried to work in the evening.

To describe the amount of time needed to do something:

• They managed to finish the job in two weeks.
• You can travel there and back in a day.
• To indicate when something will happen in the future:
• She’ll be ready in a few minutes.
• He’s gone away but he’ll be back in a couple of days.

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(3) The preposition ON is used in the following descriptions of time:

With days of the week, and parts of days of the week:

• I’ll see you on Friday.
• She usually works on Mondays.
• We’re going to the theatre on Wednesday evening.

Note that in spoken English, on is often omitted in this context, e.g.: I’ll see you Friday.

With dates:

• The interview is on 29th April.
• He was born on February 14th 1995.

With special days:

• She was born on Valentine’s day.
• We move house on Christmas Eve.
• I have an exam on my birthday.
• The fireworks were incredible on July 4th

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If we examine these different aspects of usage for the 3 time prepositions, a general pattern emerges:

• At is generally used in reference to specific times on the clock or points of time in the day. 
• In generally refers to longer periods of time, several hours or more. 
• On is used with dates and named days of the week

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Note that there are specific cases when prepositions of time are NOT needed and they are as follows:

• today, tomorrow, yesterday
• next week, next year, next month etc
• last night, last year, last month etc
• this morning, this month, these last few months etc
• every day, every night, every year, every decade etc

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Exercises

Fill in the blanks with one of the following three prepositions of time: AT, ON, IN

1) Lucy is arriving February the 13th  eight o'clock  the morning.

2) The weather is often terrible in London  January.

3) It's better to get taxi if you are out alone  night.

4) She got married  September.

5) They usually go to the south of France  the summer.

6) Columbus sailed to the Americas  the 16th century.

7) The Beatles were popular  the 1960s.

8) I graduated from university  2001.

9) His birthday is  June..
10) I usually go to my parents' house Christmas. We eat turkey together Christmas Day.

11) The train leaves  tomorrow morning  8:00 am.

12) We went skiing  last January.

13) We met at the restaurant  8pm.

14) The class is  9am  Monday mornings.

15) I like to drink coffee  the morning and tea  the afternoon.

16) We went out for dinner  last Wednesday.

17) She left London  the 4th of March.

18) I had a party  my birthday.

19) Lucy went to New York  New Year.

20) We're meeting  lunchtime  next Tuesday.

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A. Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

• at for a POINT
• in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
• on for a SURFACE

AT point	IN           enclosed space	ON                  surface
at the corner	in the garden	on the wall
at the bus stop	in London	on the ceiling
at the door	in France	on the door
at the top of the page	in a box	on the cover
at the end of the road	in my pocket	on the floor
at the entrance	in my wallet	on the carpet
at the crossroads	in a building	on the menu
at the front desk	in a car	on a page

 Look at these examples:

• Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop.
• The shop is at the end of the street.
• My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two hours late.
• When will you arrive at the office?
• Do you work in an office?
• I have a meeting in New York.
• Do you live in Japan?
• Jupiter is in the Solar System.
• The author's name is on the cover of the book.
• There are no prices on this menu.
• You are standing on my foot.
• There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall.
• I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

at	in	on
at home	in a car	on a bus
at work	in a taxi	on a train
at school	in a helicopter	on a plane
at university	in a boat	on a ship
at college	in a lift (elevator)	on a bicycle, on a motorbike
at the top	in the newspaper	on a horse, on an elephant
at the bottom	in the sky	on the radio, on television
at the side	in a row	on the left, on the right
at reception	in Oxford Street	on the way

Exercises:

1. He’s swimming ______ the river. 

2. Where’s Julie? She’s ______ school. 

3. The plant is ______ the table. 

4. There is a spider ______ the bath. 

5. Please put those apples ______ the bowl. 

6. Frank is ______ holiday for three weeks. 

7. There are two pockets ______ this bag. 

8. I read the story ______ the newspaper. 

9. The cat is sitting ______ the chair. 

10. Lucy was standing ______ the bus stop. 

11. I'll meet you ______ the cinema. 

12. She hung a picture ______ the wall. 

13. John is ______ the garden. 

14. There's nothing ______ TV tonight. 

15. I stayed ______ home all weekend. 

16. When I called Lucy, she was ______ the bus. 

17. There was a spider ______ the ceiling. 

18. Unfortunately, Mrs Brown is ______ hospital. 

19. Don't sit ______ the table, sit ______ a chair. 

20. There are four cushions ______ the sofa. 



Time to have some fun and test your knowledge of prepostioins. Let's see how well you can identify certain prepositions.  


Picture yourself ____ a boat ____ a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering ____ your head
Look for the girl with the sun ___ her eyes
And she's gone

Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds
Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds
Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds

Follow her ___ to a bridge ___ a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxis appear ___ the shore
Waiting to take you ___
Climb ___ the back with your head ___ the clouds
And you're goneLucy ___ the sky with diamonds
Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds
Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds

Picture yourself on____ a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking-glass ties
Suddenly someone is there ____ the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyesLucy ___ the sky with diamonds
Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds
Lucy ___ the sky with diamonds