How to use at in and on in English preposition review

alicia and in this week’s live lesson we

are going to practice some prepositions

today we’re going to practice using at

in and on this lesson is going to focus

on using these prepositions for place

and time to express places and to

express time so i hope this is a really

good refresher for lots and lots of

people

okay uh so we’ll make sure that

everything is rolling smoothly and then

we’ll begin with today’s lesson so as

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people there hi uh sabir khanmaji skg

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welcome hi there um let’s see who else

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today welcome everyone facebook hello

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let’s start with today’s lesson boards

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for today here are our lesson boards if

you want to take a screenshot now is

your first chance

okay so we’re gonna talk about at

in and on today in each we’re going to

talk about some key

uses of these words uh it’s not possible

for me to talk about all uses of all

these words in just 30 minutes but this

is a good introduction and i hope a good

refresher

so let’s get started with at let’s begin

with at okay if you want please feel

free to send your example sentences in

the chat i will try to check live but

there are a lot of people here today so

i will i’ll try to check yours

send it to me if you like okay let’s get

going with at let’s start by talking

about at for locations for locations we

use at to mark a specific

place a specific place so we use at for

like a building for example

let’s take a look at some example

sentences and you can send yours in the

chat too

so first one i’m at school in this case

the specific place is school yeah we can

understand school as like a building

right so we use at to mark this

another example he’s at the supermarket

he’s at the supermarket again we can

understand supermarket as a building

right a location

okay

one more we’re at the movie theater

we’re at the movie theater so once more

movie theater is our location our

building we are marking

we can also use at for more specific

locations to mark for example my boss is

sitting

at her desk my boss is sitting

at her desk so you might see at

use in this way to mark a more specific

location

we use this kind of in set expressions

like she’s sitting at her desk or she’s

working at the stove perhaps so we have

just a couple of sort of specific

locations we use this kind of at with

okay

i’m looking for your questions

pom-pom has written at home yes i’m

going to talk about at home at the end

of this section because there’s a key

use of this i want to talk about

christian hello on facebook writes at

the store there is a boy great okay

sounds good uh other ones um i’m not

sure i don’t see other questions or

other things about this topic so i’m

gonna continue to the next part so time

using at for time we use at to mark the

time something happens the specific time

something happens

so i start work at 10 every day so 10

is the time

this thing starts work we mark this with

at i start work at 10 every day

okay another example the bus leaves at 3

pm

the bus leaves at 3 pm

and class ends at 5 30. so at

marks

the time

this action

happens or this condition happens

okay some questions are coming there’s a

little bit of time difference between

the stream and the chat let me take a

look on youtube some questions a few

people ask this question can we say um

my boss

is sitting at her desk uh yeah i think

that was my answer right my boss is

sitting at her desk right this this is a

correct sentence someone said uh i

missed it my boss is sitting at her desk

or my boss is sitting on her desk that

means she’s she’s sitting

like a chair on top of her desk we’ll

talk about on

later

um

[Applause]

let’s see someone camilo says can i use

to the to school or should i use only

two i’m not sure what you mean i’m at

school i’m at i’m at the school maybe

you mean uh that would be grammatically

okay um

oh my gosh there are lots of questions

okay my boss yeah lots of people are

using on my boss is sitting on his desk

that means on top of on top of so maybe

that’s correct maybe your boss is

sitting on top of your desk hope i don’t

know

i don’t know usually we don’t sit on top

of our desks right so maybe don’t use on

lots of people are using on the answer

is probably no no no is probably the

answer sitting at sitting at

okay

uh someone says what about he is angry

at me yes we can use this as well okay

lots of people everybody’s skipping

ahead to on what we’re going to talk

about on later let’s finish at okay

let’s finish at so we use at to mark

times right the time at which something

happens okay

uh some questions from facebook

abdirahman makali i hope i said your

name

sorry says can i say i’m at work now yes

you can i’m outward ah this person

muhammad i saw this question earlier

in the supermarket and at the

supermarket yeah we’re going to talk

about in next but in the supermarket

means physically i’m inside the

supermarket inside the building right

now yeah versus at the supermarket which

is more natural to us we’re when we want

to talk about our location

like on the phone or something

we usually say i’m at the supermarket

unless it’s really really important to

be specific like i’m inside the

supermarket right now so we’ll talk

about in in just a moment

okay

some other examples on facebook are

coming my mom is sitting at home or he

is at the hospital good okay

yeah some people are saying is it at the

hospital or at hospital at hospital is a

british english expression you might

hear in hospital too i’ll talk about

that a little later at the hospital

means i’m visiting

in the hospital means i’m sick and i’m

receiving treatment so again at the

hospital

at the hospital like this means i am

visiting the hospital or maybe i work

there as staff i’m at the hospital right

now

in the hospital means i’m sick i’m

getting some treatment

okay lots of questions i hope i got that

right uh at the beach at the beach edwin

not at the beach okay uh

all right our r ray hand says hard at it

mean please don’t send the same message

a million times everybody

please be careful there are lots of

people participating today hard at it

means working really hard on something

yeah okay all right let’s go to the next

one

other at home and at the moment at home

and at the moment so i want to talk

about these because there are sometimes

some questions about how to use these

correctly

at home we use for something or someone

that is already home

already home

so we could say like my mother is at

home right now she’s there now we don’t

use it to talk about going to our home

we don’t use it to talk about returning

there we say something is at home when

it is in that location it is already

there

okay

all right and one more at the moment at

the moment this one might not seem easy

to understand but this one follows

this pattern kind of at the moment this

means right now or currently it’s kind

of a more formal way to express that

yeah at the moment means now or right

now okay

so this is our first part uh

so this is how we some some ways to use

at and um there are many phrasal verbs

of course that use these prepositions

today i’m not going to talk about

phrasal verbs really there are just way

too many

okay great so

uh andre says i will be at home soon is

wrong then yes that’s correct we don’t

say i will be at home we will say i will

be home soon i will be home soon

okay wow there are lots of questions and

topics

um

can i some people are saying can i say

i’m at the school yes so if it’s clear

in your conversation what the school

which school you’re talking about is

then yes the school is is fine to use

okay

all right um

i’m going to continue to the next one

we’re going to continue because some of

you are asking questions i’m going to

answer later but quickly a super quick

break if you missed it earlier check

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it okay yes so do that do that if you

want to practice

okay

let’s go to the next one next is in

we’re gonna talk about in next some

people are asking questions related to

in i see you so let’s talk about this

okay also if you haven’t please please

please make sure to like this video and

share it so other people can find

today’s lesson yeah that would be super

super helpful

alrighty let’s go

in

in for locations so i mentioned earlier

we use in to express

inside something inside something like

in the supermarket couldn’t be correct

we want to express being inside inside

something for example

my keys are in my bed

my keys are in my bag so you might think

can i say my keys are inside my bag yes

it’s just more efficient to say in it’s

shorter my keys are in my bag

okay next he’s in the bathroom he’s in

the bathroom so here the bathroom

is like you can imagine as like a box

he is inside it he’s inside he’s in the

bathroom

okay one more i’m in your classroom i’m

in your classroom so that means i’m

inside your classroom

all right

so lots of you are saying what’s the

difference between i’m at location and

i’m in location i said it earlier with

at but to repeat in

the emphasis is with inside i’m inside

so when native speakers talk about their

location like you send a text message to

someone or you’re on the phone with

someone when we want to say

where we are like hey i’m at the

supermarket do you need something or i’m

at your school right now i saw your

teacher we generally use at

we use in

if there’s some reason

to be specific about being inside

also we do this

for uh we do this at in thing i’m sorry

we use in

when we want to be

when we want to talk about like a

smaller unit

inside something else so for example i

said i’m at school

and i’m in your classroom right so if it

helps to think about that think of at

for like a building

and in for a small section in the

building so like

school and classroom yeah i’m at the

school i’m in your classroom this is a

more natural way that we think about

using at and in i hope that helps you

okay

uh let’s go to the next one lots of

questions and example sentences miran

writes the frog is in the pond

excellent good job frog okay uh some

people are saying i am in my room good

uh i am in the school uh at the restroom

i would reverse those i’m at the school

in the restroom uh hatis on youtube

um could i say i’m sitting inside my car

yes you could

oh my gosh there are lots of questions

right now

oh some of you i want to answer your

questions but there are very many there

are a lot today can i say in the end or

at the end it depends they’re both

correct depending on what you want to

say

let’s go to the next part

time using in for time this part is long

and there are lots of kind of confusing

points here so let’s go through them

also uh please this is happening a lot

today please don’t send many many

messages in a row so everyone has a

chance to participate yeah

okay let’s go expressing time to finish

something within so using in for time to

express the time it takes to finish

something to finish something so for

example

she finished her homework in 10

minutes

she finished her homework in 10 minutes

so this in comes before 10 minutes

plural plural yeah this in marks how

long

it took to do this action

so this is the action she finished her

homework

it took 10 minutes of time we use in to

express this

here’s another example they completed

the project in three months they

completed the project in three

months again here is in it marks three

months

plural

so this is the time it took

to finish the project okay so we use

this in

before a length of time

to express how long it took to do

something hey thiago one of our members

in the youtube chat welcome okay

basira says i will prepare breakfast

know that there i prefer breakfast in 10

minutes awesome okay

um others

okay people are saying what uh let’s see

some of you i’ve already answered your

question i talked about at earlier if

you’re watching live maybe check this

check this later okay

continuing on expressing time

until oh sorry i missed one one more

example we ate all the snacks

in an hour in an hour so notice this one

uses the singular an hour yeah because

it’s only one hour so we don’t use the

plural here but we use this in

to talk about how long it took to finish

something or to complete something okay

what’s the difference between in time

and on time that’s the last point in

today’s lesson for those of you who are

asking that question all right let’s go

to the next point about in

expresses time until something happens

express this time until something

happens so

let’s start the meeting in five minutes

let’s start the meeting in five minutes

so that means

five minutes from this point in time

let’s start the meeting so we use in

here sometimes i see two people maybe

use two let’s start the meeting like two

five minutes or something like that

we have to use in here let’s start the

meeting in five minutes so after five

minutes have passed

all right on to the next one he wants to

leave in an hour he wants to leave in an

hour so this means after one hour has

passed he wants to leave so this in

marks that he wants to leave in an hour

and finally we’re going to move in three

months we’re going to move in three

months

okay so again three months this is how

long

this action will take so we’re going to

do this

after

this time period

has elapsed has finished

okay

uh all right

i’m looking at your questions uh i’m

going to continue on a lot of you are

asking about things i’m going to answer

later okay i see your question so i’m

going to continue on

last part

i want to refresh us about we use in

with years seasons centuries months so

for example in october in november in

december and so on we use in before

these we use it before years as in she

was born in 1959

so before the year she was born in 1959

in winter we go skiing in winter my

season here so before the season not on

i see on used a lot in this position she

was born on 1959 nope she was born in

and here before this season use in in

winter in summer in autumn

and

he was a famous painter in the 18th

century

he was a famous painter in the 18th

century

in

here and then the 18th century century

if you don’t know century century is 100

years a 100 year time period so the 18th

century in this case so we use in to

mark these time periods

okay so this is how we use in if you

want more information about all of these

prepositions i have some videos on the

youtube channel so use your search

skills to search for at an in and on or

just search preposition search for

preposition on the channel to find my

other lessons about this topic

phew okay let’s go to the next part

let’s go to the next part

uh we’ll go to the last one on now uh we

have just

oh just enough time also if you haven’t

please please please like this video and

share it so others can find the lesson

yeah i think lots of people needed some

preposition practice today there’s a lot

of people here that’s cool okay so let’s

go to on and talk about how we use it

and this will i think answer some

questions i’ve seen in the chat too okay

so let’s talk about using on first using

on for locations for locations so

earlier we talked about on and in with

sitting at the desk or sitting on the

desk on

marks a surface position marks a surface

position so what’s a surface that means

it’s the top of something so this is on

the board right so my marker is on the

board right so lots of you ask can i say

my boss is sitting at the desk or

sitting on the desk imagine your marker

is the boss

typically we don’t sit on our desks we

sit next to them right or we sit we say

at sitting at the desk or next to the

desk so we don’t use on unless the

person is at the surface position

so

let’s look at some other examples my bag

is on the table my bag is on the table

so the position of the bag is the

surface of the table okay

another one your coffee is on the desk

your coffee is on the desk so the

surface position of the desk

and

his laptop is on the chair his laptop is

on the chair so this item my bag your

coffee his laptop

is in this position right the surface

of

this the table the desk the chair right

so we use on to mark the surface

position or to express the surface

position of something

okay

let’s go to the next one then so this is

how we use on to mark a surface position

we also use on for street location

street location so when we give

directions for something okay for

example

the store is on

first street the store is on first

street this tells us the location of the

store the street location of the store

the store is on first street

okay or her house is on

maple road so the road name here the

street name is maple road her house is

on maple road

or that restaurant is on the highway

that restaurant is on the highway

uh chat moderator on youtube can you

help me out with some

repeated comments

that restaurant is on the highway so the

highway here is a main road yeah it’s

still a road so we need to use on here

that restaurant is on the highway

okay so we use on to mark a street

location to mark market street location

okay

all right

um

okay other questions and looking for

other questions

uh

elita says you can’t find the link for

the test check the youtube description

it’s there i clicked it earlier you can

check it there it says want to test your

english or how good is your english

check that in the youtube description

okay let’s continue to time

time so we use on with time we use it

with days of the week so we practiced

using in with like months and years and

seasons and things like that we use on

with days of the week for example let’s

meet on sunday let’s meet on sunday so

not in

not in i see in lots of people use in

here we use on with days of the week

okay

another one she started a new job on

monday she started a new job on monday

so this marks my day of the week here

and finally we’re going to the mountains

on saturday we’re going to the mountains

on saturday so we use this before our

days of the week okay

finally last point

made it this question lots of you asked

this in time versus on time in time

versus on time so what’s the difference

we use on time to mean something happens

at the scheduled time

so for example if class the schedule of

class is from two o’clock to three

o’clock class starts at two o’clock

class starts on time class starts on

time class starts at the scheduled time

in time

means to have enough time to do

something to have enough time to do

something so for example my flight

leaves at two o’clock

i need to arrive at the airport in time

to catch my flight that means i need to

arrive at the airport with enough time

to catch my flight so that means i

cannot arrive at two o’clock my flight

leaves at two o’clock i have to arrive

before that so

in time means to have enough time to do

something on time means that something

happens at the scheduled time

okay

phew that was a lot of information i

know there were lots and lots of other

questions there are so many expressions

that use at and in and on and i’m not

going to talk about them because there

are way too many there are way too many

today’s focus was on using these words

as prepositions and a couple of very

common uses in other expressions so i

hope you got a good refresher

about these words and if you want to see

more information again search uh

preposition

on the english class 101 youtube channel

or on the website if you are uh an

account holder there okay

uh

andres why do we say alicia is on

youtube and not in youtube well i can’t

physically i cannot enter like

youtube i cannot enter the internet

right so we usually for internet

expressions we say something is on the

internet maybe it’s helpful to imagine

like the internet as an information

board right when we post something on a

board in real life we say i put it on

the board you can imagine the internet

is like the same thing so we post

something

on the internet not in it we can’t get

inside so maybe on

uh is kind of we can think of this use

of on as similar to the physical posting

action

so i hope that helps you okay a lot of

you are asking specific questions about

specific very specific vocabulary words

i suggest you google those because i

don’t have time i have to go i’m already

late so i will thank you for asking me

many good questions uh and

i will end the lesson there so if you

enjoyed today’s lesson please don’t

forget to give it a like

also here is the lesson board picture if

you want to take a screenshot this is

what we talked about today we talked

about at and in and on we talked about

location and time expressions with these

words and a few other topics as well

there’s so much to cover here and uh of

course i didn’t cover all of it but

we will cover it in some other

format in some way okay next week’s

lesson i’ll be back next week of course

next week’s lesson information is right

here here we go next week’s lesson next

week will be october 20th at 10 p.m

eastern standard time that is new york

city time if you don’t know your local

time please use your excellent google

skills google it or set a notification

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facebook or if you follow me on

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topic reminder in my stories every week

i always post something there next week

i’m going to talk about mistakes people

make when learning a language and how to

avoid them so common issues that we see

that

all of us do sometimes just a couple of

reminders of good ideas

for your studies and maybe things to try

not to do okay so we’ll finish there for

this week thank you as always for

joining me and don’t forget if you want

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alicia there too so i’ll say goodbye for

this week enjoy the rest of your day

have a good week and i will see you

again