Prepositions of place - AT, IN, ON

    position         movement

The choice of

preposition

often depends

on the way

we see an

object,

whether we

see it ...
     
1   AT      as a point in space                                       
Someone’s at the door.
He’s at his desk.
There are many cars at the crossroads.		                 (event) See you at the match.
The boss is at the meeting.
Sue is at the party.
 
at home, at school, at university, at work
at the station, at the bus stop		    (house/address)  I live at 35 Shirley Road.
I’m at Mike’s (house)
There are many people at the lake today.

2  ON     as a line
Graz is on the river Mur.
It’s a small town on the border.		 I always meet her on my way to work.
A village on the road / on the coast
I usually read on the bus / on the train / on the plane.     Who’s that man on the bike?
There’s a town on the lake.

3   ON     as a surface
There are many books on the shelves.
Your bag is on the floor.
There’s nobody on the beach today.		 We live on the first floor.
There are nice pictures on the wall.
I can’t see the name on the door.
on + street (USA)  -  I live on Fifth Avenue.
There are many boats on the lake.

4   IN     as an area
Kate lives in New York.
Milan is in Italy.
John lives in a city, not in the country.		 Who’s that in the photo / in the picture?
What do you read first in the newspaper?
There are some cows in the field.
in + street (GB)  -  I live in Shirley Road.
There are two islands in the lake.

5   IN     as a volume
There are many people in the room.
Peter is in the kitchen / in the garden.
She often swims in the pool.		 He never smokes in the car.
He works in the garden at the weekend.
He’s in bed / in hospital / in prison.
There are thousands of fish in the lake.

                                                                    IN and AT with buildings
                                 IN                                                                                       AT
We use in when we mean inside a building:

There are 400 seats in the cinema.
The air is terrible in the pub when people smoke. 		We use at when we mean an event, the normal purpose of the building.
John and Sue are at the cinema. (=watching a film)
My parents are at the pub (=having a drink)

Prepositions of time - AT, IN, ON

AT 1 POINTS OF TIME at 4 o’clock at the end of May
ON 1 DAYS on Tuesday on the 14th of May
  2 PARTS OF SPECIFIC DAYS on Tuesday morning on Saturday evening
IN 1 PARTS OF DAYS in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening
  2 PERIODS LONGER THAN A DAY in May, in the summer, in 2008