Prepositions in English - 'at', 'on', 'in'

Hi, my name is Rebecca, and today I'm going to be speaking to you about grammar, a point

that many students do have trouble with, which is prepositions.

These little words can sometimes be very confusing, and the reason for that is because usually

in different languages, prepositions are used differently.

So if you're having trouble with it, first of all, don't feel bad because many students

have lots and lots of problems with prepositions.

It doesn't mean you can't learn them, you can.

There are some that operate by rules, and there are some where you kind of have to learn

the expressions by heart, but with enough practice you can definitely learn the right

prepositions.

Today I'm going to be speaking about three little words, three prepositions that occur

quite often in the English language, and these are "at", "on", and "in".

Now "at", "on", and "in" can be used to refer to time or place.

In this example, in this video, we're going to be speaking about how these words are used

in relation to time, okay?

So let's start with the first one, "at".

"At" is very specific when we're talking about a very specific period of time.

For example, "at 12.30", "at 5 o'clock", "at 3.45", it's a very specific period of time.

You could also use this preposition to say "at midnight" or "at noon" because again, those

are very specific periods of time, okay?

Alright.

The second one is a little bit wider than "at", not as specific, but not very broad.

So, we use "on" for something that represents one day or one date.

For example, we can say "on Saturday", "on Mondays".

You can say "on Mondays", for example, "My yoga class meets on Mondays."

That's how we use that, but it still represents one word in essence, one day, I'm sorry, in

essence.

Alright.

You can also use this for a particular holiday.

"We are going to meet on New Year's Day" or "on a particular date", you could say "We're

going to meet on December 5th".

So, to review, "at" is very specific, a particular period of time, "at 12.30", "on" is a little

bit wider, for one day or one date, "on Monday", "on January 25th", right?

Okay?

And now, we come to the last one, which is "in".

"In" covers the widest period of time, so in a sense, if you're unsure, you should probably

choose this one because this would cover the widest range of options, but I prefer if you

do study and learn the right ones so that you can actually be using the perfectly correct

preposition.

So, let's look at "in".

"In" we can use before months, seasons, years, decades, or periods of time.

For example, you could say, "I was born in September", "I was born in the summer", "I

was born in 1995", well, not me, perhaps you, "He was born in the 1960s", or "This happened

during the Middle Ages".

These are all examples of how you can use the preposition "in" to represent different

periods of time, okay?

So, I hope I've been able to shed some light on how we use these three small but significant

prepositions in the English language.

Good luck with your English.

Bye.