Last time I wrote about the prepositions IN, ON and AT, connected to transport (you can still read this here – ( https://dm-your-english.com/blog/1961 ). This time, I will give examples for IN, ON and AT connected to locations.
Location – IN
For locations, the guidelines are:
IN – Use IN for places with walls or fences and places with borders, such as; – rooms, towns, wards, cities, prefectures, countries, and continents.
- IN the kitchen, IN Shinjuku, IN Tokyo, IN Japan, IN Asia
IN is also used for geographical sites of land or water. When talking about rivers, lakes, oceans etc. only use IN if the noun or pronoun is under or partially under water.
- IN the valley, IN the forest, IN the mountains, IN the water, IN the river, IN the sea
Location – ON
ON – Use ON for street names, borders, and floors of buildings.
- ON Route 66, ON the Saitama border, ON the second floor
ON is also used for surfaces.
- ON the ground, ON the roof, ON the wall, ON the beach
Location – AT
AT – Use AT for specific locations such as – business, buildings, and stores.
- AT the zoo, AT the restaurant, AT the Post Office
- AT the library, AT the hospital, AT City Hall
- AT the supermarket, AT the shopping mall
IN, ON, AT alternative meanings
Remember, these are guidelines; it is possible to use IN, ON, or AT with a location to mean something different. Look at the following –
“I’m IN the river.”, meaning, underwater or partially underwater, maybe swimming.
“He’s ON the river.”, meaning, touching the water indirectly, maybe on a boat.
“She’s AT the river.”, meaning, beside the water on dry land, maybe fishing.
As Masami and I teach how to communicate in English, we do want our students to use the correct preposition to express themselves. As you can see from the above example, all prepositions can be used however, context helps decide which one to use.
If you’re interested in learning English, please consider us. We can help you with prepositions either; IN our classroom face-to-face, or, AT home ON your computer.
Where would we be without prepositions? I can’t tell you!
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