Prepositions of Time: At, On, and In: Specific Times

Prepositions of Time:
at, on, and in
We use at to designate specific times.

The train is due at 12:15 p.m.
We use on to designate days and dates.

My brother is coming on Monday.
We're having a party on the Fourth of July.
We use in for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a

year.
She likes to jog in the morning.
It's too cold in winter to run outside.
He started the job in 1971.
He's going to quit in August.
Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in
We use at for specific addresses.

Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Road in Durham.
We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.

Her house is on Boretz Road.
And we use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties, states,

countries, and continents).
She lives in Durham.
Durham is in Windham County.
Windham County is in Connecticut.
Prepositions of Location: in, at, and on
and No Preposition
IN AT ON NO
(the) bed* class* the bed* PREPOSITION
the bedroom home the ceiling downstairs
the car the library* the floor downtown
(the) class* the office the horse inside
the library* school* the plane outside
school* work the train upstairs
uptown
* You may sometimes use different prepositions for these locations.

Prepositions of Movement: to
and No Preposition
We use to in order to express movement toward a place.

They were driving to work together.
She's going to the dentist's office this morning.
Toward and towards are also helpful prepositions to express movement. These are

simply variant spellings of the same word; use whichever sounds better to you.
We're moving toward the light.
This is a big step towards the project's completion.
With the words home, downtown, uptown, inside, outside, downstairs, upstairs, we

use no preposition.
Grandma went upstairs
Grandpa went home.
They both went outside.
Prepositions of Time: for and since
We use for when we measure time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years).

He held his breath for seven minutes.
She's lived there for seven years.
The British and Irish have been quarreling for seven centuries.
We use since with a specific date or time.

He's worked here since 1970.
She's been sitting in the waiting room since two-thirty.
Prepositions with Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs.
Prepositions are sometimes so firmly wedded to other words that they have
practically become one word. (In fact, in other languages, such as German, they
would have become one word.) This occurs in three categories: nouns, adjectives,
and verbs.
NOUNS and PREPOSITIONS
approval of fondness for need for

awareness of grasp of participation in
belief in hatred of reason for
concern for hope for respect for
confusion about interest in success in
desire for love of understanding of
ADJECTIVES and PREPOSITIONS
afraid of fond of proud of

angry at happy about similar to
aware of interested in sorry for
capable of jealous of sure of
careless about made of tired of
familiar with married to worried about
VERBS and PREPOSITIONS
apologize for give up prepare for

ask about grow up study for
ask for look for talk about
belong to look forward to think about
bring up look up trust in
care for make up work for
find out pay for worry about
A combination of verb and preposition is called a phrasal verb. The word that is
joined to the verb is then called a particle. Please refer to the brief section we have
prepared on phrasal verbs for an explanation.
Idiomatic Expressions with Prepositions
 agree to a proposal, with a person, on a price, in principle
 argue about a matter, with a person, for or against a proposition
 compare to to show likenesses, with to show differences (sometimes
similarities)
 correspond to a thing, with a person
 differ from an unlike thing, with a person
 live at an address, in a house or city, on a street, with other people
Unnecessary Prepositions
In everyday speech, we fall into some bad habits, using prepositions where they
are not necessary. It would be a good idea to eliminate these words altogether, but
we must be especially careful not to use them in formal, academic prose.
 She met up with the new coach in the hallway.

 The book fell off of the desk.
 He threw the book out of the window.
 She wouldn't let the cat inside of the house. [or use "in"]
 Where did they go to?
 Put the lamp in back of the couch. [use "behind" instead]
 Where is your college at?
Prepositions in Parallel Form
When two words or phrases are used in parallel and require the same
preposition to be idiomatically correct, the preposition does not have to be used
twice.
You can wear that outfit in summer and in winter.
The female was both attracted by and distracted by the male's dance.
However, when the idiomatic use of phrases calls for different prepositions, we must
be careful not to omit one of them.
The children were interested in and disgusted by the movie.
It was clear that this player could both contribute to and learn from every game
he played.
He was fascinated by and enamored of this beguiling woman.

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Prepositions of Time:

at, on, and in

We use at to designate specific times.

We use on to designate days and dates.

We use in for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a

Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in

We use at for specific addresses.

We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.

And we use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties, states,

* You may sometimes use different prepositions for these locations.

We use to in order to express movement toward a place.

Toward and towards are also helpful prepositions to express movement. These are

With the words home, downtown, uptown, inside, outside, downstairs, upstairs, we

We use for when we measure time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years).

We use since with a specific date or time.

Prepositions with Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs.

approval of fondness for need for

ADJECTIVES and PREPOSITIONS

afraid of fond of proud of

VERBS and PREPOSITIONS

apologize for give up prepare for

 She met up with the new coach in the hallway.

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