حروف اضافه انگلیسی در رابطه با زمان

IN ON AT! English prepositions of time

Guys, I need to be honest with you. I’m feeling really really lazy today. So I want to do a nice easy lesson that many of my viewers have actually requested. Which is about the in, on and at prepositions of time.

Now, this is such an easy thing to learn. Because for once, we actually have rules. And we more or less stick to them, there’s not too many exceptions. The issue is with remembering them, in the moment when you’re trying to say them. So I’m going to give you the tools and then you have to do the work. So, the first– Oh, going to put my tea down.

So the first preposition we’re going to look at is at and at is normally used when we’re talking about a specific time: at three o’clock, at sunrise, at noon, at bedtime, at dinnertime. Specific times. We can also use it in some expressions like at the weekend, at night, at present, at the same time at the moment. So one difference between American and British English is with the weekend. Here in England, we say at the weekend. And in the States, they say on the weekend.

One final point is that with special holidays and holiday periods like Christmas or Easter we use at as well. What did you do at Christmas. Okay, so now onto … Oh sorry, in. We tend to use this for longer periods of time. Months, in June, in July, in August, in September. Also for years, in 2015, in the 1990s, that’s years and periods of years. Centuries, in the 1800s. We’ve also got the seasons, in summer, in winter. And then just periods of times in general. In the future, in the past. We also have general periods of the day. In the morning, in the afternoon.

We do have at night though, which is an exception. So lastly, on to on. I will never get bored of doing that. (laughing) But yes, on is for specific dates and specific days. So on Monday, on Tuesday, on my birthday, on Christmas Day, on New Year’s Eve. Also, when we say the specific day. Like on the 10th of June which is my birthday. Remember that. Please remember that with British English, the way we say the date is different to how we write the date. So I would write 10th June.

But I would say on the 10th of June. On the 10th of June. The of is very important and so is the the. Okay so my birthday is on the 10th of June. So one last point to include is that when I use this next last or every, I don’t have to include the in, on, or at preposition. When’s my birthday? Next June. No preposition necessary. When do I do yoga? Every Monday. So make sure you are conscious of that when using prepositions of time. Guys, it was so lovely to have such a relaxed lesson with you.

I quite liked not using the whiteboard today. Let me know if you like that style or if you prefer to have more visuals. I know different students learn in different ways. If you have any problems with his video, watch it again and then you can come back and complete the quiz that I’m going to show next so you can put your learning into practise.