Prepositions - Arrive AT, ON, or IN?

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, we're going to be reviewing some very common

prepositions, "at", "on", and "in". And specifically, we'll be talking about how to use these prepositions

with the very commonly used verb, which is "arrive". Okay? So, let's go to the board,

and I'll explain how you can use these. Okay. So, when you talk about where you arrive,

you could be talking about when you arrive somewhere, or where you arrive. So, let's

start with the first one. So, when you're describing when you or someone else arrives,

you could say, "I'm arriving at 5 o'clock." Alright? So, "at" is used with the most specific

period of time, a specific hour or minute. At 5, at 6.30, at noon, at midnight. Okay?

Then, if you were referring to a day, it gets a little bit wider, so we're talking about

one day, such as Monday, or we're talking about one date, such as January 25th. Alright?

So, with that, we would say "on". So, "on Monday", "on Wednesday", "on September 15th",

and so on. Okay? "I'm arriving at 5 o'clock on Monday, January 25th." Alright? In this

case, you saw that I used both of the prepositions. Right?

Let's move on. If you are referring only to the month, or the year, or the season for

some reason, then we go to the widest option that we have, and that's with the preposition

"in". Alright? So, "at" is very specific for a particular time. "On" covers one day or

one date, and "in" covers a month, or a year, or a season. For example, "They arrived in

July." Or, "She's arriving in 2012." Or, "We're arriving in the summer." Okay? So, that's

how you can use "at", "on", and "in" to describe when you're going to arrive. But, usually,

we don't only say when we're going to arrive, we also mention where we're going to arrive.

So, the same prepositions come in. Alright? "At" and "in", in this case. And there is

a difference. So, let's look at what it is. So, when we're talking about where you arrive,

we use the preposition "at" when we're referring to a specific place. So, just like with time,

we used "at" for a specific time, with place, we use "at" for a specific place, such as

at Heathrow Airport. Right? The specific airport. Or, a hotel at the Sheraton. Alright? Now,

whether you give the actual name of the airport or you give the actual name of the hotel doesn't

matter. Even if you said, "I'm arriving at the airport." Okay? You don't give the name

of the airport, that's okay. You still have to say, "at the airport" or "at the hotel".

Okay? Or, "at the office", for example, because it's a specific place.

Then, if you're going to talk about the city or the country, you need to use a different

preposition. This time, you have to use the preposition "in". So, you would say something

like, "I'm arriving at Heathrow Airport in London at 5 o'clock." Alright? So, now you've

got "where" and "when" in one sentence, which is actually how it is in real life. Right?

So, "at" for a specific place, like airport or hotel, "in" for the city, in London, in

Paris, in Toronto, and "in" also for the name of your country or the country you're going

to. So, "I'm arriving in Russia.", "I'm arriving in Canada.", "I'm arriving in India.", etc.

Okay? So, that's... These are the basic rules, okay, for prepositions that we use most commonly

with this verb, "arrive". Now, I've written a little bit more up here to show you that

there are a few exceptions. Of course, English loves to have exceptions, and this is no exception.

So, when we say, "He arrived yesterday." Now, you see that I have used no preposition. Okay?

"They arrived last year.", or "They're going to arrive next week.", "They're going to arrive

tomorrow." With all of these expressions, we don't need to use any preposition at all.

Okay? And similarly, we have one very special place called "home", and with... When we use

the word "home", we don't need to use any preposition. So, we just say, "He arrived

home safe and sound at 5 o'clock.", let's say. Okay? "He arrived home.", we don't have

to say, "He arrived to home.", we don't have to say, "He arrived at home.", nothing. We

just say, "He arrived home.", or "I'm arriving home at this time." Okay? So, that's pretty

much the overview that you need to be able to use this verb correctly. Let's try out

a few examples and see how you do. Okay? "I arrived _____ the Hilton _____ New York _____

7 o'clock." So, what could you say? "I arrived", what would you say here? "at the Hilton in

New York at 7 o'clock." Now, you see, I said, "at the Hilton", and I said, "at 7 o'clock".

That's okay. You can use the same preposition twice or sometimes more than that, and it's

fine. You just have to use the correct preposition according to the rules, right? It doesn't

matter how often it appears in the sentence. Let's try another example. "They arrived _____

Chicago _____ the winter." Okay? So, "They arrived", now Chicago is a city, so we would

say, "They arrived in Chicago in the winter." Okay? You see that? In both cases, we used

"in", but that's fine because I have to use "in" before a city, and I have to use "in"

in terms of time before a season. So, that's fine. You don't have to worry that you use

the same preposition more than once. Last one, "She arrived _____ JFK airport _____

Monday." What do we do there? Okay? So, "JFK airport" is a specific place, so we say, "She

arrived at JFK airport and one day", so on Monday. Okay? I hope that this overview of

these prepositions, which are used so commonly, has helped you to be able to describe when

you're going to arrive or to describe when someone else is going to arrive, which we

need to do quite often in our personal life and professional lives as well. Okay? If you'd

like to do a quiz on this subject, please go to our website, www.engvid.com. There,

you'll find a quiz on this and also more than 300 videos on all other aspects of English.

All right? Thanks very much. Bye for now, and good luck with your English.