Prepositions of time

Hello, ladies and gentlemen =)

Перевели у нас часы, and I didn’t even notice it, потому что все мои electronic devices сделали это абсолютно on their own. Time flies by, теперь the sunset is на час позже, а вставать нам an hour earlier. Поэтому я решила, что нужно нам разобраться, how we can talk about time.

Итак, today я собираюсь вам рассказать about prepositions of time.
We use prepositions of time with time expressions, when we want to talk about time.

So, как нам нужно говорить, in Monday или on Monday? At night or On night? In New Year or on New Year? Как это все запомнить? How can we deal with it?
А вот как. Тут все очень просто.

Есть такая классная штука, называется the At-In-On pyramid.

• I have dinner at 7 p.m. (7 p.m.- precise точное время, use AT)
• Jackie goes to sleep at 11 p.m. (precise time, use AT)

Для longer periods of time, таких как days, we use ON.

• I’ll see you on Friday. (Friday = day, so we use ON)
• I was born on the 14th of December. (date = day, so use ON)

Для very long periods of time, such as weeks, years, months, centuries etc, мы use IN.

• I like films made in the 1940’s. (decade = long period, use IN)
• She likes going to the seaside in August (month = long period, use IN)

Here are some more examples for you:

• at for a PRECISE TIME
• in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
• on for DAYS and DATES

Однако we have some exceptions. Например для AT есть standard expressions, в которых мы используем AT:

А вот some common expressions для IN и ON:

in	on
in the morning	on Tuesday morning
in the mornings	on Saturday mornings
in the afternoon(s)	on Sunday afternoons
in the evening(s)	on Monday evening

 

Let’s look at the time of the day that we have. Сутки у нас разбиты примерно вот так:

Для days and parts of the day мы можем использовать at, in, или on, и тут нужно look at this more closely:

One more thing: Когда мы говорим next summer, last year, last Tuesday – we don’t need any prepositions of time:

We use no prepositions with:  

• last night, year etc
• this morning, month etc
• every day, night, years etc
• today, tomorrow, yesterday

You can watch this video to understand prepositions of time better:
 

If you want to learn a little bit more, you can study this table. Тут есть более difficult examples of prepositions of time:

Prepositions in expressions of time

А вот some exercises, которые you can use to practice:

• fill in the blanks http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/time-prepositions-exercise-2.html
• fill in the blanks-2: http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/time-prepositions-exercise-1.html
• multiple choice http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5278
• Choose the correct answer: http://www.better-english.com/grammar/timepreps.htm
• More fill in the blanks (not only at, in, on) http://www.fiestaesl.com/gramtimeprep.html
• More on choosing the correct option: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2988

GOOD LUCK! =)
Use your time wisely =)