PREPOSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS OF TIME

TIME: at, in, on

• We use at, in and on in these ways:

1) at + a time of the day

f.e: at 2 o’clock
at 6:30
at midnight
at noon
at lunchtime

2) at + weekends

f.e: at the weekend/s

3) at + public holiday periods

f.e: at Christmas
at Easter

4) in + a part of the day

f.e: in the morning

in the afternoon
in the evening

BUT, we say: “at night”

5) in + longer periods eg. Months, seasons,

years etc.

f.e: in July
in the summer
in 1983
in the 20th century
 6) on + a day

f.e: on Monday
on Christmas day

7) on + a day + a part of the day

f.e: on Monday morning

on Saturday night

8) on + date

f.e: on 4th July

on 1st January

• We DO NOT use at, on or in before:

next, last, this, every, all, each, some, any

and one.

f.e: We are leaving next Monday.

I’ll see you this evening

• We DO NOT use at, on or in before:

tomorrow and yesterday

f.e: What are you doing tomorrow evening?

• We normally leave out at, when we ask: (At)

what time…?

f.e: What time are you leaving?

 • We also use in to talk about a period of time in
the future.

f.e: I’ll be finished in half an hour. (= half an

hour from now)
We’re meeting in two weeks. (= two weeks
from now)

• We also use in to show how long something

takes.

f.e: I can walk from my house to the town

centre in twenty minutes. (= it takes me twenty
minutes to do this)

ON TIME AND IN TIME

1) On time means ‘at exactly the right time’.

f.e: The buses are very unreliable. They never

arrive on time.
In my school, the classes always start on time.

2) In time means ‘early enough’.

f.e: He discovered the fire in time to stop it

spreading. (= early
enough to stop it)
I hope my leg gets better in time for the
football match on
Saturday. (= early enough for the match)

AT THE END AND IN THE END

1) At the end means ‘at the point where

something stops’.
 f.e: We are going on holiday at the end of this
week.
At the end of this film I felt very sad.

2) In the end means ‘finally’ or after some

time.

f.e: We couldn’t decide what to do yesterday

evening. In the end
we decided to stay at home.
At first, I didn’t like him, but in the end we
became good
friends.

TIME: IN, DURING, FOR, WHILE

1) In and during

• We can use both during and in to refer to a

period of time, often with the same meaning.

f.e: We were in Rome during/in the summer

It snowed during/in the night.

• We prefer during to say that something

continues all through a period.

f.e: We were in Rome during the whole of the

summer
(NOT: … in the whole of the summer.)

• We use during, NOT in, to refer to an activity,

eg. a visit or a meal (rather than a period of
time).
f.e: We visited the Colosseum during our visit
to Rome.
(NOT: … in our visit to Rome)