Prepositions of Time & Place
at, in, on, to, under, between…
Prepositions are little words that show time, place or direction, and three of the most important ones are 'at', 'in' and 'on'. For time, we use 'at' with clock times and short moments (at 5 o'clock, at night), 'in' with long periods such as months, seasons and years (in May, in summer, in 2020), and 'on' with days and dates (on Monday, on 15 March). For place, we use 'at' for a point or exact spot (at the bus stop, at home), 'in' for an enclosed space (in the box, in the room), and 'on' for a surface (on the table, on the wall). To show movement towards somewhere we use 'to' (I go to school) and 'into' for movement to the inside of something (She walked into the room). To show position we use words like 'under' for below something (the cat is under the table), 'between' for the middle of two things (the shop is between the bank and the café), and 'behind' for the back of something (the garden is behind the house). For example: 'We have English on Monday at 9 o'clock in the morning, and the classroom is between the library and the gym.'
Rules
- 1Time: use 'at' for clock times (at 7 o'clock, at night), 'in' for months/seasons/years (in May, in winter, in 2020), and 'on' for days/dates (on Friday, on 1 January).
- 2Place: use 'at' for a point (at the door, at home), 'in' for an enclosed space (in the bag, in the kitchen), and 'on' for a surface (on the floor, on the shelf).
- 3Use 'to' for movement towards a place (go to the park) and 'into' for movement to the inside (jump into the pool).
- 4Use position words to show where something is: 'under' (below), 'between' (in the middle of two things), and 'behind' (at the back of).
- 5Some phrases are fixed and do not follow the surface rule: 'at home', 'at school', 'at work', 'at night'.
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard