Hadar Shemesh breaks down when to use at, on, and in for time. Use at for specific hours like 9am, on for days and dates like Wednesday, and in for broader periods like July or 2020. One exception: you say at night, not in night.
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Hey, everyone, it's Hadar. Welcome to the Influency podcast, and this is episode number 140. Today we're going to talk about prepositions, and in particular the prepositions on, in, and at, when it comes to time. Okay, so let's open that up and talk about prep. Prepositions. Prepositions could be challenging for speakers of English as a second language because there are so freaking many of them. On, in, at, for, by, of, and the list goes on. And if you speak a language like the language I speak, where there are like two prepositions, and here we are in English, we have like a billion and. And then we need to identify which preposition we need to use depending on the situation or the tense or the verb that we use. I mean, life gets a little confusing. So this is why I decided to share with you today's episode. Actually, I recorded it a while back. So you can also find the visual version of this episode. I'm going to link to it in the description, but the audio is awesome as well. And there I share with you my system for remembering prepositions, especially prepositions of time. In the next episode, we're going to talk about in, on, and at when it comes to place where it gets a bit more interesting. So make sure that you tune into this episode 140 and the next episode 141 to get this holistic explanation about these three prepositions. And yes, I know there are more, but let's start with those three. Mainly because these three are often confused by speakers of English as second language, but also sometimes by native speakers. It's funny, when I was researching this topic, I asked my friends who are native speakers, okay, so when do you use in and when do you use on? And they're like, I don't know. I just. I don't know how to explain it. I just use it. That's how you use it. And they don't think about the logic. It's subconscious. It's intuitive, which is like the beautiful thing about a language you are born into. But at the same time, there is a system. I mean, the person who invented the prepositions, who sat there by his or her desk, they had some kind of reason why we should use at and in in specific situations. So this reason is revealed today. Okay, let's just listen and I'll meet you here after the episode.
When it comes to time and place, at is always going to be the most specific, on a little less specific. And in is Usually the least specific at, most specific. On, less specific in, least specific. Now let's look at it. When it comes to time, I want you to visualize your calendar. Look at this month's calendar. Okay? So you have the box which is the entire month, and it's divided into columns. These are the days. And then you have small boxes. These are the hours. So when you schedule a meeting, you pick a certain hour. That is the most specific time that you have in the calendar. And this is when you use at, because at is used when you indicate a specific time at 9am at 3:45, at 8pm at noon, because noon is always 12pm midday or. Or at midnight because it's always 12am There is one exception when we use at. And I'll talk about it later. Okay, so at is a specific time. You only use at when you want to indicate a specific hour. Then we move on to on. On is the columns in your calendar, meaning days and dates. On Wednesday the 5th, let's meet on the 4th of July, let's meet on April 15th, or let's meet on a Saturday next month. And then we use in. In is the least specific. So we use in to indicate a specific time within a larger time frame. A specific time within a larger time frame. Where you don't want to commit to exactly when, because it doesn't matter, because you don't know yet. For example, let's meet in the morning. A time frame, right? You can meet at 9am, 9, 30, 9, 45, you can meet at 10. That's all in the morning. So you don't commit to when exactly, but it's in. So in is a specific time within a larger timeframe. Let's meet in the afternoon. Afternoon is again, like, you have a few options there, but you don't want to commit to when. And you say in. Maybe it doesn't matter, maybe you don't know yet. So you use in when you want to talk about a specific time within a larger time frame. You can also use it when you talk about months in August. In July, it can be on the first, on the second, on the third, on the first Wednesday in July, but it's still in July. You can use it when you talk about seasons. In the summer, I'll see you in the winter, it can be when you talk about years. In 2020, I plan to travel to Japan. In 2001, I moved to New York. In 2013, my first daughter was born. And you can also use it to talk about eras in the Middle Ages in the renaissance in the 60s. So at always remember it. It's a specific time. On is the columns days or dates and then in is a specific time within a larger time frame where you don't want to commit to exactly when. So it's least specific. You need more information to know when exactly to show up. Okay, so that is in. The only exception is when we use at night because night is a larger time frame and night can be 10:00pm 11:00pm, 12:12am, but we still use at. Why? Because it's English and we have to have something irregular otherwise it won't be that interesting. So use at night and for other parts of the day just use in. Okay, so that was on, in and at when it comes to describing time. And next we are going to talk about on, in and at when it comes to place. And you definitely don't want to miss it out because I have a really great tool that can help you remember when to use on in an AT really easily.
Okay my friends, thank you so much for tuning in. If you found this episode helpful, I would so appreciate it if you could rate and even review the podcast because it will just tell other people that don't know about this podcast why they should listen to it. That's about it, which is a lot. And of course I will always be happy to connect with you on Instagram. You can find me at Hadar Accentsway and send me a DM and tell me that you came from the podcast. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll catch you next time on the next episode of the Influency podcast. Bye.
