Learn English: Using AT, IN THE, AGO, and more words to talk about time

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com,

and today's lesson, we're looking at how to talk about days and times.

And we're going to start by looking at prepositions, because sometimes

it's a little bit confusing which preposition to use for particular references to the day

or the time. Okay?

So, there are two main prepositions. There's "at" and there's "in", and "in the" usually

or always, probably. So, with "at", we can have the... A specific time on the clock:

"At 2pm" or "At 2:00", "At 2:30", "At midnight", all the times on the clock or on your watch

is "at". And then when you're referring to mealtimes: "At breakfast time", "At lunchtime",

"At teatime". We like teatime, here in the UK. It's very traditional. Around 4:00, nice

cup of tea. Lovely. "At teatime", "At dinnertime", and "At night". Okay? So, "At night". But

when it comes to other words that are linked with morning, afternoon, evening, night - we

use a different preposition. So, it's just "night" that has "at" with it there, and then

the mealtime, and the specific times on your watch.

Okay, so let's have a look at the "in" preposition, and see what goes with "in". So, you can say:

"In the morning", "In the afternoon", "In the daytime", meaning anytime during the day.

"In the daytime", "In the middle of the day", so that's roughly maybe midday, 12:00 or 1:00,

2:00, that sort of time. "In the middle of the day". "In the evening". You can also say:

"In the night", which has the sort of meaning: "During the night".

We've got: "At night" there, but you can say: "In the night" meaning:

"Oh, I woke up in the night because I'd had a bad dream."

So: "I woke up during the night because I had a bad dream." So you can use

it with "night" with both prepositions. Okay? And then: "In the middle of the night". You

can also say: "I woke up in the middle of the night." Okay, so I hope that helps to

make clear which preposition to use. And now we're going to move on and look at some

past, present, and future words. Okay.

Okay, so moving on to look at some words about the past, the present, and the future. Okay?

Past, present, future. We have, for example: "yesterday". Yesterday was Tuesday.

"Today". Today is Wednesday. "Tomorrow", tomorrow is Thursday. Okay? Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Then, when you're talking about different parts of today-okay?-we use "this", so you

say: "This morning". That is whether it is morning at the moment:

"This morning we are going to do something" or you can say: "This morning we had our breakfast at 9:00." So,

"this morning" you can use in the present or the past. "This morning", "this afternoon".

And again, oh, you could say: "This afternoon we will", so that's like future,

or: "This afternoon we are doing something", in the present.

So you can use these past, present, future, but it's all with:

"This morning", "This afternoon", "This evening", but it then

changes. We don't say: "This night", we say: "Tonight", all one word, "Tonight". Okay?

So that's just one little exception: "Tonight". Okay.

And then looking at something similar for yesterday, we can say: "Yesterday morning",

"Yesterday afternoon we went to see a film", "Yesterday evening we went to see some friends",

but again, we don't say: "Yesterday night", we say: "Last night". Okay, so another little

exception. "Tonight", "Last night" are different. Okay. Right.

And then moving on to look at the future: "Tomorrow morning", "Tomorrow afternoon",

"Tomorrow evening". There is a good program on television tomorrow evening. And this time

it's the same: "Tomorrow night". So, it doesn't change. "Tonight", "Last night", "Tomorrow night".

And then moving on to look either further back in the past, or other times in the present,

or further into the future. With the day of the week, you can say: "Last Monday", which

was Monday of last week; you could say: "This Monday", Monday of this week; or "Next Monday"

in the future, "Monday of next week". Okay? And similarly, you can use these in combination.

"Last week", "This week", "Next week", "Last month", "This month", "Next month",

"Last year", "This year", and "Next year". So they're all very straightforward. Okay?

Right. And then to finish with just two little interesting points. First of all, this little

word: "ago", "ago". "A week ago", that means this time last week.

"A week ago, I was on holiday."

Okay? Or: "A week ago, I was in my office."

Or: "A week ago, I was travelling on a train."

It's what you were doing this time last week; seven days ago.

So: "A week ago", you could use it with "A month ago", "A year ago". You can make it less, you can

say: "A minute ago", "An hour ago", "A day ago", okay? So it's always in the past. And

even longer time: "5 years ago", "10 years ago". So it's a useful little word.

And then finally, a lot of people get confused by this strange word: "a fortnight". They

might think: "Well, four... Four nights." No, it's not four nights. It actually... It

was a very old expression, meaning 14 nights. Okay? And if you think 14 nights, well, okay,

that's two weeks. So, 14 days, but 14 nights. Okay? So, it just means... "A fortnight" means

two weeks. You might find it in books like Jane Austen, but we still use it today as

well to say: "A fortnight", "A fortnight ago, I was on holiday",

or "We are going on holiday for a fortnight". So, we use it a lot in the UK.

Right, so I hope that was all useful for you.

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And that's it for today.

Hope to see you very soon.

Okay. Bye for now.