The prepositions of time AT, ON and IN
describe when something happens,
happened or will happen.
What is the difference between AT, ON and IN. Let's have a look?
AT is used for a specific time or hour of the day.
We say at 8 a.m.
at 9 o'clock
at 6:15
at Midnight. For example I get up at 7 o'clock.
The movie starts at 8:30.
We arrive home at midnight.
Look at the first example. I get up at 7 o'clock. What does o'clock mean?
O'clock is used when there are no minutes.
When the big hand or the minute hand is on the number 12.
The clock here shows that it is 2 o'clock. O'clock because there are no minutes
Let's look at the last example. He arrived home at midnight.
We say at midnight because midnight is a specific hour, it is 12 o'clock at night and
What is the opposite of midnight?
The opposite is Midday or Noon
which is twelve o'clock during the day.
The word afternoon comes from after plus noon which is after twelve.
AT is also used for a holiday period or festival.
We say AT Christmas
AT Thanksgiving
We're not talking about a specific day, no, we're talking about that period of the year.
The examples
They sing carols at Christmas
Did you eat too much at Easter?
Come and visit us at Thanksgiving.
We use ON for specific days.
We say ON Monday, ON Tuesday,
ON Friday, ON Sunday.
Notice how the days of the week always start with a capital letter.
Monday is with a capital M, a big M, not a small one.
Here are some example sentences.
Will visit you on Wednesday?
Where were you on Friday?
He doesn't work on Sundays. Now, why are there nS at the end of Sunday?
Now, why is there an S at the end of Sunday?
It is because we are talking about all
Sundays in General and not just this Sunday
He doesn't work on Sundays in general
It is important to note that we do not have an article
between the preposition ON and the day of the week.
We do not say I will visit you ON the Wednesday, no and
We do not say, I will visit you the Wednesday again, no.
It is possible to say I will visit you Wednesday... Though it is more common to use the preposition ON
with the day.
We also use ON
with dates.
For example: ON the 19th
ON May 4th
ON New Year's Day
All of these are dates
Let's look at some example sentences
His birthday is on
March 27th
We open our gifts on Christmas day
Christmas day is a specific date
It is the 25th of December or December 25th, so we say on
Christmas day
The final sentence... The exam is on
the 16th
Remember that for the dates we use ordinal numbers
We say the 16th
Ending in TH
See our video about how to say the date in English
The preposition IN is used with months
We say in February, in March, in May, in July.
Notice how the month of the year always starts with a capital letter.
August is with a capital A, a big A, not a small one.
Let's look at some example sentences
My birthday is in January
I'm going on vacation in
August
Halloween is in October
We don't mention a specific day
Just a month so we use the preposition IN
before that month
Now let's look at this
the Brazilian National day is in
September
we use IN
Because we only mention a month. We don't say the day in
September
the Brazilian National Day is on
September 7. Why do we use ON?
Because we're talking about a specific day.
It doesn't matter if the month comes first you still use ON
because it is a day of the month.
The Brazilian National Day is on
the 7th of September. Again we use ON
because we're talking about a specific day.
As you can see, the order of the month and the day is not important as we are still talking about a specific day
See our video about how to say the date in English
The preposition IN is also used with years. We say in
in 1629
in 1984
in 1999
in 2017
See our video about how to say the year in English.
Let's look at some example sentences
Shakespeare was born in
1564.
The Titanic Sank in 1912
The Treaty was signed in 1840.
The preposition IN is
also used with decades.
A decade is a period of 10 years.
We say IN the
1960s
in the 60s
Notice how an apostrophe is used at the beginning to replace the nineteen part?
You can also write the decade as a word
in the sixties
in the 70s
Also, notice how we use the article THE before the decade.
In the 60s
We do not put an apostrophe between the number and the final s
Let's look at some example sentences.
Life was difficult in the 1940s.
There were many hippies in the 60s.
The music was great in the eighties.
The preposition IN is also used with centuries.
A century is 100 years.
we say
in the 18th Century
in the 10th century
We use ordinal numbers when referring to centuries we say 16th
century and not [16] century
Also, notice how we use the article THE before the number.
Let's look at some example sentences
We are living in the 21st century.
It was built in the 6th century.
It was invented in the 18th century
The preposition IN is also used with the seasons in English.
We say in winter, in spring,
in summer, in Autumn
The seasons are not written with capital letters
Let's look at these example sentences
We go to the beach in Summer
Does it snow here in winter?
There are many flowers in Spring.
We use the preposition IN
with a period of time
We say in six hours, in two days, in three weeks, in five years.
IN plus a period of time
it shows a certain length of time that starts now and
usually at the end of that time period Something will happen
If now it is, January, and I say I'm going to Japan in four months
The point in the future is four months from now.
This means I will travel in May.
Let's look at some examples the meeting starts in [ten] minutes
This means it will start [ten] minutes from now when a [ten] minutes have gone by the meeting will start
She will be here in three hours
We're going in a couple of weeks a couple of weeks means two weeks
you can see that we commonly use in with A number and then the time period In
ten minutes [in] three hours in
four months
For part of the day, we normally use in
We say in the morning in the afternoon in the evening
but we say at
night
be careful at
night
Not in the night
For example, I drink coffee in the morning
He goes to the gym in the morning [I]
study English in the afternoon
She is often tired in the afternoon
We have dinner in the evening
They watch movies in the evening I
like to read in bed at night you
Can see the stars at night?
When we include a day with a part of the day?
we use the preposition on
before it on
Sunday evening on Thursday
afternoon
We do not put anything between the day of the week and the part of the day we say on
Wednesday afternoon
We do not say Wednesday in the afternoon [no]
some example sentences
We will have a party on Friday night
Our flight leaves on Monday morning. I
Have private lessons on Tuesday afternoon
When we talk about the weekend you may hear [x] the weekend or on the weekend?
What is the difference?
And the weekend is used in British English
On the weekend is used in American English
We used to always go to the beach at the weekend. We used to always go to the beach on [the] weekend
So both prepositions can be used it depends on where you are speaking English
another important expression is at
the Moment
We do not say in this moment when we're talking about now right now or at the present time [I]?
Don't want to talk [about] it at the moment
He's a little tired at the moment, but he'll be fine later
At the moment she is working on her new book
last next this every
We do not use a preposition [head] on or in before these words
So we don't say the party is on
next Friday
No, we say the party is next Friday
You can also say the party's on Friday, but without using next here are some more examples
They went to the mountains last month
We're going to New Zealand next year.
He went to the gym this morning.
She visits her parents every Sunday.