Prepositions of Time:
IN, ON and AT
A common question I get is:
“How do you use the prepositions at, on, and in?”
Prepositions are one of the most challenging aspects of mastering English. The problem is, a lot of the time there aren’t clear rules, and you have to practice common forms until they come to you naturally.
The good news is, in some cases there are general guidelines that could make choosing the correct preposition easier. In this post, we’ll look at some tendencies that will help you understand when to use at, on and in for time.
Prepositions and Time
Generally speaking, we use at for shorter more precise times. As we move to longer periods (days and dates), we use on. And finally we use in for even longer periods of time.
At for Precise Times
We always use at for specific times. So we can say,
“I’ll see you at 8:00.”
“I have a break at noon.”
“Let’s meet at midnight.”
We also use at for holidays (without the word day). For example,
“We only see him at Christmas and Easter.”
The exception to this would be for the word night. It’s not related to this rule, but we use at with night. For example,
“Our cat usually stays out at night.”
“The streets get really quiet at night.”
ON for Days and Dates
We always use on for days and dates. So we can say,
“Let’s meet on Friday.”
“She was born on the 2nd of November.”
We use on whenever we use the word ‘day’. For example,
“It snowed on my birthday.”
“We were born on the same day!”
“The mall is closed on Christmas day.”
Exceptions
The exception here would be for periods of the day such as the morning, afternoon or evening. For example,
“She always goes running in the morning.”
“I have a break in the afternoon.”
“We’ll see you in the evening.”
IN for Months and Years
We always use in for months or years. So we can say,
“I was born in 1987.”
“I’m taking my vacation in August.”
We also use in for longer periods of time, such as decades and centuries:
“The industrial revolution started in the 18th century”
Exception
An exception to this rule is the word ‘weekend’. Even though weekends are longer periods of time, in the US and Canada, we use on and not in with weekend (maybe because it goes by so fast, that it feels like one big day!). So we can say,
“The office is closed on the weekend.”
“He always works on weekends.”
In the UK, it seems that the weekend goes by even faster, because ‘at the weekend’ is more common!
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