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grammar

Prepositions of Time

IN- The pyramid’s TOP (wider), which is BIGGER and more GENERAL:

Description: Bigger periods of time: Centuries, Decades, Years, Months
Examples: in the 20th century, in the 1980’s, in March, in the third week of April, in the future
Exceptions: in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon

ON- The pyramid’s MIDDLE part, which is SMALLER and MORE SPECIFIC:

Description: Days, or periods of time shorter than three days
Examples: on my birthday, on Saturday, on the weekend (United States), on June 8th
Exceptions: on my lunch break, on time

AT- The pyramid’s BOTTOM (pointed), the SMALLEST, and the MOST SPECIFIC:

Description: Specific times or small time periods.
Examples: at 9:00 PM, at lunch, at dinner, at the start of the party, at sunrise, at the start of the movie, at the moment
Exceptions: at night, at the weekend (England)

Prepositions of Location

IN – The TOP (wider), which is BIGGER and more GENERAL:

Description: In larger areas (countries, states, cities, neighborhoods)
Examples: in the United States, in Miami, in my neighborhood
Exceptions: in downtown (“I work in downtown”)

ON – The MIDDLE, which is SMALLER and MORE SPECIFIC:

Description: a longer area, street, beach, river
Examples: on Broadway Street, on the beach, on my street

AT – The pyramid’s BOTTOM (pointed), the SMALLEST, and the MOST SPECIFIC:

Description: the address or specific location, specific points.
Examples: at 345 broadway street, at the store, at my house

Prepositions of Placement The mind map pyramid below explains TIME in the same way we did above (only this one is not inverted), but it also introduces prepositions PLACE/PLACEMENT, which we will focus on here.

N – for enclosed spaces and personal modes of transportation

Enclosed Space: in the kitchen, in the house, the water is in the glass
Personal Modes of Transportation: get in the car, my friend is in the taxi

ON – for surfaces and public modes of transportation

Surfaces: on the floor, on the wall, the book is on the table, on a page, I put on my clothes (my clothes are on my body)
Public Modes of Transportation: on the bus, on the plane, on a boat, on a ship,
Exceptions: on my motorcycle, on my bike (these are personal modes of transportation, but we use “on”)

AT – for specific point (the same as prepositions of location)

at the bus stop, at the cinema, at the corner, at the top of the hill, at the mall

Becoming Friends With Prepositions

Again, these rules are not an exact science, but they will help you get past 90% of the preposition confusion that most people encounter with IN, ON, and AT.

After you learn these techniques, you will not only speak a lot better, and with a lot more confidence, but the final 5 to 10% of prepositions won’t seem too hard. It will probably take some study time and some memorization of collocations (“in the kitchen,” “at the mall,” but you will see that it’s a lot more manageable. The point is that you don’t want to be thinking about the rules too much when you’re communicating.

This will help make most of the process unconscious and automatic, which is exactly what fluency is.

You can use Anki, a really effective vocabulary study tool, or other free study resources that can make your process a lot easier to learn using these prepositions. Another thing that will naturally help is reading and making English a part of your life.

These are all very important parts of the Real Life English methodology. You can get FREE PDF Worksheets for this exercise by joining our global community (or a copy of our popular e-book, 101 Words You Won’t Learn at School)

Watch A Video Lesson on This