Hey guys, how's it going?
I'm Justin, welcome to another episode of RealLife TV.
Today I'm going to teach you how to use the prepositions of in, on and at with this awesome
inverted pyramid. So, stay tuned!
Is this RealLife?
Ok, so this is a little bit of a confusing topic for most people, but luckily I have
a really awesome resource that's going to help you learn this in just a few minutes
and never forget.
So, let me introduce you to the inverted pyramid.
On this pyramid, as you can see, on the top you have IN. It's more general, it's bigger.
So, as you move down the pyramid, it gets more specific. So, we're going from "in,"
which is bigger and more general, to "on," which is more specific, to "at," which is
very specific, with both time and geographic locations.
So, let me explain first geographic location, which is on the right side of this pyramid,
as you can see. So, "in," on the top, which is bigger and more general, you talk about
"in a country," "in the United States," "in Mexico." You can say a whole region or continent
- "in Europe." You can say "in Seattle," "in New York," "in London."
And you can get more specific as we move down, "in a neighbourhood," "in a part of town,"
"in Chinatown," "in the Bronx." So that's "in" for geographic location.
As you move down the pyramid, you have "on." So, "on" is a little bit more specific with
streets, avenues, and even longer things, like rivers.
So, moving down the pyramid you have "at," which is the most specific part of the pyramid
for geographic location. You have "at" for the address with specific location, which
is sometimes "at the corner" as well. So, "at 323 Broadway St.," "at my house," "at
the park," "at the store."
So, that's geographic location.
Moving to the other side of the pyramid, the left side of the pyramid, you have time, prepositions
of time.So, on the top, you have "in." You have "in," bigger portions of time. You have
"in the 19th century," you have "in the 1980's," "in the 1990's," you have "in 2011," "in 1997."
And then you move down more specifically to months. So it's "in July," "in August," "in
the second week of March," "my birthday is in the first week of March," for example.
So that's "in," which is bigger, more general.
Moving down the pyramid, to "on," you have more specific, on a certain day. "It's on
my birthday."
In "in" you had a week. A period of a week or more. "On" is a specific day and even the
weekend. In the United States we say "on the weekend." Sometimes an exception to this is
when in England they say "at the weekend," but you have "on the weekend," "on my birthday,"
"on the 17th of April."
So, that's "on."
Moving down, more specifically, to the more narrow part of the pyramid you have "at."
So, "at" specific times, you have "at 7am," "at 2pm," "at night," "at lunch," "at breakfast,"
"at dinner."
A few exceptions to this are "in the morning," "in the afternoon," "in the evening." So,
that's "in," but those are exceptions.
So, these rules work in about 90% of the situations, most situations. So, they're not going to
be 100% accurate or correct, so you need to really listen, pay attention and memorize
other situations as well. But this is going to really give you the foundation to learn
this well, to use your prepositions correctly.
So, thank you very much, I really enjoyed being here today, make sure you subscribe
to our channel and check out our website, we have some really great stuff there.
Take care, guys.