AT, ON, or IN? The Triangle Method for Prepositions of Place

862,102 views ・ 2019-02-09

Learn English with Rebecca


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi.
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I'm Rebecca from www.engvid.com.
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In this important lesson I'm going to show you how to use three very common prepositions
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correctly in English, and they are: "at", "on", and "in".
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Now, you might have seen an earlier lesson of mine where I talked about "at", "on", and
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"in" when it had to do with time, and we used something called "the triangle method".
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But here, also, we're going to use this triangle method to learn "at", "on", and "in", but
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we're going to refer to places.
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Okay?
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To place; not time, but place.
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So, let's see how it works.
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So, here we have the triangle, and you can see "at" at the top, "on" in the middle, and
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"in" at the bottom.
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Okay?
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So what does that mean?
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So, here we want to show that "at" is used when we're talking about very specific places.
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Okay?
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For example, when we're talking about the name of a restaurant: "at Starbucks", "at
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McDonald's", and so on.
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Or when we're giving a specific address: "at 25 Main Street".
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Okay?
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So, you have the number; not only the street, not only the city, but the specific number
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of the building and the street - "at 25 Main Street".
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Or we say a specific place, like: "at JFK Airport".
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And even if it's not with a name, it could just say: "at the airport", "at the office".
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Right?
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"At the library", "at the supermarket".
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You see that it's very specific, and that's why we use "at"; in those very specific situations.
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All right?
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Got that?
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Now let's look at the second one.
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So, the second one is "on".
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"on" we use for a little bit more than a very specific place; it's a little bit wider.
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For example, we see here on a street, or a highway, or a floor.
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Okay?
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So, we see: "on Main Street", "on Route 66", "on the 6th floor".
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Okay?
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So: "Somebody lives on Main Street.", "I drive to work on Route 66.", "I work on the 6th
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floor."
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Okay?
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So we see that it's a little bit wider than that specific place.
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Little bit wider tends to often be horizontal kind of places.
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Okay?
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Next we come to "in".
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So, this is for everything more.
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Okay?
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So, "in" is used for large areas.
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For example, we say: "in Los Angeles".
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Well, let's look first at what the categories are.
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So, large areas, such as a city, a state, a country, a continent, or just a large area.
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For example, we could say: "He lives in Los Angeles.", "She lives in California.", "They
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live in the US.", "in North America", "in the world".
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Okay?
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So, what do we see here?
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That "in" is the broadest; it's the widest.
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Okay?
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And then "on" is a little bit less, and "at" is very specific.
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Okay?
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So, have you got that?
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Let's find out when we do a little quiz where we're going to practice using these very common
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prepositions: "at", "on", and "in".
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Okay?
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Because we use these all the time; we use them in writing, we use them in speaking - and
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if you have a mistake in this then you're going to have lots of mistakes.
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So, let's get it right and let's practice with a little quiz.
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Okay, so before we get started, let me just tell you that there are two ways that you
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could do this with me.
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One is if you'd like a little more time to think about the answer, then just pause the
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video, and you can see all of the exercises.
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So, stop it, write down the answers, think about it, and then you can follow me as I
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go through it.
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Or if you feel you can do it right away, then join me right now.
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Okay?
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Let's get started.
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So, again, your options are what? "at" for something very specific, "on" for something
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a little bit wider, and "in" for the largest areas of all.
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Okay?
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All right.
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So, let's begin.
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Number one: "_____ Tokyo".
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What do we say there?
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Okay?
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Yes.
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It should be "in Tokyo".
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Okay?
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Why?
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Because Tokyo is a city, and it's a large place, so we said that for large places we
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use "in".
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All right?
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Next: "_____ Hill Road.
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_____ Hill Road.
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I live _____ Hill Road."
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What would you say, there?
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Which of these?
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Okay, good: "I live on Hill Road."
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Okay?
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So, we said "at" is the specific one; "on" is for things like also the horizontal kind
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of places like roads, and streets, and rivers.
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Okay?
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The places like that; the floor that you live on.
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Okay?
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We say "on", "on Hill Road".
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Number three: "_____ Brazil.
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She lives _____ Brazil."
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What would you choose for that one?
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"She lives"-yes-"in Brazil".
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Okay?
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Again, Brazil is very wide.
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Right?
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It's a big place, so we want the widest option, which is "in".
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All right? "in Brazil".
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"in" for cities, countries-remember?-continents, large areas of land, or also in the world.
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All right?
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Number four: "_____ 40 Park Avenue.
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They live _____ 40 Park Avenue."
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What's that one?
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Which of these?
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Okay?
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So, that's...
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Is that specific or is it wide?
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"40 Park Avenue" sounds very specific to me.
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Right?
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So, if it's specific then you would say what? "at".
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Okay?
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"They live at 40 Park Avenue."
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Very good.
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All right.
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Now let's look at some sentences.
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"We're staying _____ the Moon Hotel."
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What should it be?
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Think about it in terms of how specific it is.
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And in this case it's, again, very specific, so we say: "We're staying at the Moon Hotel."
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Okay?
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Good.
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Next: "He works _____ Burger King _____ Bay Street."
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Yes, it happens that very often in the same sentence we have more than one preposition.
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Okay?
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But the same rules apply.
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You can still use this triangle method to help you figure out the answer.
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So, let's take it step by step: "He works _____ Burger King", right?
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So, is that a specific place, or something very large, or something medium size?
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It's a specific place, so here we would say: "He works at Burger King", and then we have
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"Bay Street".
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Okay?
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So, what do you think that would be?
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That's going to be this one.
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Right? "on Bay Street".
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Okay?
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"He works at Burger King on Bay Street."
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All right.
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Next, number seven: "She lives _____ 265 Queen Street _____ London."
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Once again we have more than one preposition.
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What would it be?
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"She lives", yes, right.
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You're right; I heard you.
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"She lives at" - very specific.
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"at 265 Queen Street", and then "London", okay?
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So, this is a city, so we want to say: "in London".
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All right?
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So, how did you do on those?
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Did you get them all right?
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If you did, congratulations; if you had to think a little bit or you got some of them
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wrong, that's no problem.
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Prepositions are confusing at times, but at least you have now some sort of guidelines
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to help you.
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They're confusing just because in different languages prepositions are used very differently.
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So, you're not alone.
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Okay?
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There are lots of people who are thinking about which prepositions to use in English.
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And this triangle method can help you to figure out at least some of those answers rather
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quickly.
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Okay?
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Now, I still want to say that even when we're talking about place, though: "at", "on", and
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"in" sometimes are not used exactly in the ways that I've explained here, but this triangle
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method does help for lots of different places.
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All right?
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So, for example, if you look in a grammar book you'll often see...
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A good grammar book.
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You'll see not one lesson about "at", "on", and "in" for place, but you'll see several
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chapters about "at", "on", and "in" for place.
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This will cover definitely one or two of those chapters.
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Okay?
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But if you really want to make sure that you've understood this and you're getting it right,
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what are the things you can do?
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First go to my... go to our website, okay?
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At www.engvid.com; there you can do a quiz on this.
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Okay?
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And don't forget to use it.
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Use...
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Use this in speech, use it in writing.
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And every time you're writing this week, think about: "Do I want to say 'at', 'on', and 'in'?
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Why?"
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Okay?
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Think of the reason until it starts to feel automatic.
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Okay?
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And don't forget to subscribe, and that way you'll have access to lots of other lessons
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which I think will help you to learn English faster and hopefully a little more successfully.
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And don't forget, if you didn't watch the other lesson on "at", "on", and "in" for time,
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which is also really confusing and also very commonly used, then check that out.
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And if you've watched it, watch it again; make sure that you've actually understood
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it and you're still using it correctly.
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Okay?
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So, thanks very much for watching.
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I wish you all the best, especially with these lovely prepositions.
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Okay?
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Have a good time with your English.
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Bye for now.
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