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PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE (AT, IN, ON)

AT, IN, and ON are the most common prepositions of place.



1. We use IN with streets, cities, districts, regions and countries:
She lives in Roland Street / in Oxford / in England.
They live in the south of France.
We use AT with addresses:
I live at 47, George Street.

2. We use IN with rooms: in the kitchen
We use IN with other enclosed places: in an envelope / in my pocket
We use ON with surfaces: on the floor / on the ceiling / on the
pavement
We use ON with FLOOR when we talk about part of a building:
My flat is on the third floor.
3. We use at home, at work, at school, at university to talk about
being in the place where we live, work, or study:
I was at work / at home yesterday.

But we say in hospital, in prison, etc. to talk about being a patient
or prisoner in the place:
Jack is very ill and hes in hospital.
PREPOSITIONS OF TIME (AT, IN, ON)
We use:
AT for the time of day:
at five oclock / at 11.45 / at midnight / at lunchtime / at sunset etc.

ON for days and dates:
on Friday(s) / on 16 May 1999 / on Christmas Day / on my birthday

IN for longer periods (e.g. months/years/seasons):
in October / in 1988 / in the 18
th
century / in the past
in (the) winter / in the 1990s / in the Middle Ages / in (the) future
We use AT in these expressions:
at night
at the weekend / at weekends
at Christmas
at the moment / at present
at the same time
We say:
in the morning (s) but on Friday morning(s)
in the afternoon(s) but on Sunday afternoon(s)
in the evening(s) but on Monday evening(s)
We say in a few minutes / in six months, etc:
The train will be leaving in a few minutes. (= a few minutes from now)
Shell be here in a moment. (= a moment from now)
We also use IN to say how long it takes to do something:
I learnt to drive in four weeks. (= it took me four weeks to learn)

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