Prepositions: Time
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This document discusses English prepositions of time. It provides examples of how to use prepositions such as at, on, in, by, until, from-to, ago, for, and since to indicate specific times or durations. For example, "at" is used to indicate a specific time like 7am, "on" is used for days and dates, and "in" is used for longer durations like weeks, months, or years. It also discusses the differences between prepositions and how they are used with time phrases, such as using "for" to indicate a duration and "since" to indicate a point in time.
Prepositions: Time
- 1. PREPOSITIONS OF TIME AT: TIME Let’s meet at 7am. I have an appointment at 12.30pm. ON:DAY/DATE I finished my project on Tuesday. We have a test on 3rd December. I have a date on Friday evening. (remember with time of day it is still ‘on’) IN: WEEK/MONTH/YEAR/DECADE/SEASON(anything longer thanaday) He beginsschool in August. I wasborn in 1983. The music wasbest in the 70s. Exceptions - We say at Christmas and Easter: I eat so much at Christmas. (Remember Christmas Day is a day: We eat turkey on ChristmasDay in the UK.) - We use ‘at/on’ when talking about the weekend: Whatdid you do at/on the weekend? - We use ‘in’ for when something will happen in the future: he will be back in 5 minutes. We will return from vacations in 2 weeks. - We use ‘in’ for how long it takes to do something: I learned to drive in 2 months. You will be ready for the test in 4 days. - We are ‘on’ vacation, holiday, break, etc. When we say ‘next’ or ‘last’ (e.g. last week) we do not need a preposition. We also don’tneed one with ‘every’, ‘each’ and ‘all’ as well as ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’. We say: In the morning: We go to work in the morning. In the afternoon: I go to the gym in the afternoon. In the evening: he likes playing footballin the evening. AT night: they usually watch TV at night.
- 2. Phrases At the moment: I am working on a projectatthe moment. At the age of: I started playing piano at the age of 7. At the sametime: we are both travelling at the same time. UNTIL/TILL We use ‘until’ to explain how long a situation continues: We are staying in Cartagena untilthe end of August. Let’s wait till it stops raining. At the weekend I stayed in bed until 11am. FROM – TO/TILL/UNTIL We use ‘from – to/till/until’ to show when something begins and finishes: We played footballfrom 7.30 to 9pm. The meeting will be from 2 till 3pm. We are on vacation from January 23rd untilFebruary 16th . AGO When we are certain about a time in the pastwe use ‘ago’: I lived in Spain 2 yearsago. We wentto the finca 4 daysago. BY We can use ‘by’ when we wantto say ‘at the latest’ or before a time: I will be back by 11 o’clock. They will be back by Friday. We will finish the projectby Tuesday. BEFOREand AFTER We use ‘before’ to say ‘earlier than a certain point in time’ and ‘after’ to say ‘later than a certain point in time’: I will be there before 7.30. Make sure you gethere before the rain starts. We wentto the park after lunch. They are arriving after 10pm so don’twait up.
- 3. If wefollow with a verb, the verb is in the –ing form: Before going to the shops, you need to make sure you have enough money. After eating too much food, the children threw up. FOR and SINCE Both ‘for’ and ‘since’ explain how long something has been happening. ‘For’ explains the periodof time ‘Since’ explains from what point intime: I arrived in Colombia in February and now it is July so: I have been here FOR 6 months. I have been here SINCE February. A common mistake is to say: I have been here since 6 months. Remember, since is for a point in time and for is for the period of time. Another common mistake is to say: I have been here during 6 months. This is a translation fromSpanish and WRONG. DURING and WHILE Remember we use ‘for’ to explain how long something goes on (with a time phrase). ‘During’ does nottell us how long something happened, it is used before a noun (during + noun) to say when something happened. Nobody spoke during the presentation. We get plenty of snow here during the winter. ‘During’ can also be used with ‘the week’ to describe whathappened (but not the weekend = ‘at/on’): During theweek we live in the city but at theweekend we go to our farm. ‘While’ is used to talk about two things that are happening at the same time. Again, the length of time is not important. ‘While’ is used with a subjectand a verb (while + subject+ verb). The phone rang whileI was watching TV I met him whilewe were studying in the library