Prepositions of time

Hello, ladies and gentlemen =)

Перевели у нас годинник, and I did not even notice it, тому що всі мої electronic devices зробили це абсолютно on their own. Time flies by, тепер the sunset is на час пізніше, а вставати нам an hour earlier. Тому я вирішила, що потрібно нам розібратися, how we can talk about time.  

Отже, today я збираюся вам розповісти about prepositions of time. 
We use prepositions of time with time expressions, when we want to talk about time.

So, як нам потрібно говорити, in Monday або on Monday? At night or On night? In New Year or on New Year? Як це все запам'ятати? How can we deal with it?
А ось як. Тут все дуже просто. 

Є така класна штука, називається the At-In-On pyramid.

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

Для longer periods of time, таких як 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, ми 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

Однак we have some exceptions. Наприклад для AT є standard expressions, в яких ми використовуємо AT: 

А ось 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. Доба у нас розділена приблизно ось так: 

Для days and parts of the day ми можемо використовувати at, in, або on, і тут потрібно look at this more closely: 

One more thing: Коли ми говоримо 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 є більш difficult examples of prepositions of time:

Prepositions in expressions of time 

А ось some exercises, які 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 =)