Prepositions in, on, and at: How do you use them?

Prepositions are the words that are used to indicate the place, time, or direction of a noun. In the English language, we have eight parts of speech, and a preposition is one of them. It’s quite hard for a non-native speaker to understand their usage, as it’s often confusing. In this article, we are going to understand the usage of the prepositions in, on, and at.

Guidelines for using the prepositions in, on, and at:

Commonly, in, on, and at are used to talk about the location or place of someone, something, or a time indicating when something happened.

Preposition of time:

The preposition of time helps us know when something happens. In, on, and at are the most common time prepositions.

Now let’s understand how to use them.

Usage of in, on, and at to indicate time:

We use in, on, and at to talk about different time frames; hence, it’s important to understand their correct usage, as these are very confusing for many English language learners.

Time preposition ‘at’.

The preposition ‘at’ is used to indicate the specific time of any event.

Example:

The match starts at 9 a.m. every day.

We will meet at noon.

He will reach Delhi at midnight.

I have a meeting at 11:30 a.m. today.

‘At’ is also used in some common expressions, such as;

‘At the moment’: I’m busy at the moment.

‘At sunrise’: We generally go for a walk at sunrise.

‘At sunset’: She starts her dinner at sunset.

‘At lunch’: We are going to meet a client at lunch today.

‘At dinnertime’: Give me a call at dinnertime.

‘At suppertime’: He loves to listen to music at suppertime.

‘At some point’: I hope we can meet for a coffee at some point next week.

‘At the same time’: They both reached home at the same time.

‘At night’: Don’t disturb me at night.

‘At any time’: You can come to my home at any time.

Time preposition ‘on’

The preposition ‘on’ is used to talk about a particular day or date.

Example:

I’m going to my native place on Saturday.

My birthday is on the 10th of October.

I have music classes on Sundays.

We hoist our national flag on every Independence and Republic Day.

We also use ‘on’ in some expressions, such as;

‘On time’: I reached the office on time.

‘On the way’: I’m on the way to my office.

‘On the spot’: The manager hired him on the spot after the interview.

Time preposition ‘in’

The preposition ‘in’ is used to talk about a wide time frame, such as a month, a year, or a century, etc.

Example:

We will visit Mumbai in the month of December.

Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe pageant in the year 1994.

We eat lots of mangoes in the summer.

Early humans developed basic tools and weapons in the Stone Age.

He was a good cricket player in the past. (To talk about the time period.)

My flight will take off in an hour. (To talk about future.)

It was cold in the morning.

It was raining heavily in the evening.

Preposition of place:

The preposition ‘at’ is used to show a specific location, point, or place.

Example:

I’m at McDonald’s.

Who is knocking at the door?

She is at her desk.

The preposition ‘on’ is used to show something on a surface; it is also used to talk about general street names.

Example:

The clock is on the wall.

The restaurant is on Mahatma Gandhi Road.

We live on the seventh floor.

Don’t sit on the floor.

Exercise Questions:

1. She is ___ the library.
2. The book is ___ the table.
3. We live ___ the third floor.
4. Meet me ___ the coffee shop.
5. The picture is hanging ___ the wall.
6. There is a restaurant ___ Main Street.
7. They are staying ___ a hotel.
8. The cat is sleeping ___ the bed.
9. The party is ___ my house.
10. He is waiting ___ the bus stop.
11. My birthday is ___ July.
12. She was born ___ 1995.
13. The show starts ___ noon.
14. He visits his grandparents ___ Sundays.
15. We will leave ___ the morning.
16. The event is ___ December 10th.
17. Let’s meet ___ the weekend.
18. The project is due ___ the end of the month.
19. She called me ___ midnight.

20. We have a meeting ­­_____ 3 p.m.