Hi everyone, welcome back to
English with Max. In this video we are going to look at prepositions. Yes, along with phrasal verbs,
prepositions are one of the most frustrating things for
people learning English. Is it "on Christmas" or "at Christmas"?
Is it "in June" or "on June"? English is stupid. Thanks, Frank. Today we are going to look at
the most common prepositions of time: in, at and on. Prepositions of time are actually
a lot easier than prepositions of place because there are some
very concrete rules. Yay! Just a quick reminder before we start
that you can also follow me on social media. I now also have a TikTok
account, so if TikTok's your thing, you can follow me there as well. If you have
an intermediate to advanced level of English, you might also be interested in
my free advanced English email lessons. You'll find the link in the description. We're first going to look at "in". Generally speaking, we use "in" for periods
of time, for example, months. In June. George met his girlfriend in June.
We also use it for seasons. For example: in winter. George met his girlfriend in
winter. Yes, in Australia June is in winter. We use it for weeks as well. For
example: George met his girlfriend in the second week of winter. We use it for years. In 1986. I was born in 1986. If you were wondering about my age, now you know. We also use it for decades
and centuries. In the 1980s, for example. You can also just say: in the eighties.
In the 20th century. One way to help you remember this is to perhaps imagine it
physically. For example, we say "in the swimming pool". We say "in" because you are
surrounded by something. In this case you are surrounded by the water and the
walls of the pool. If you say "in June", you are (in a way) surrounded by the month.
We haven't quite finished with "in" yet. There are a few more things to know. We use it
for periods of the day. We say: in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening.
An exception to that rule is with the word "night". We say "at night".
We also use "in" for historical periods of time. We say: in the Ice Age, in the Middle
Ages, in ancient times. Then there are periods of time that aren't as clearly
defined. We say: in the past and in the future. If you can believe it,
Frank was naughtier in the past than he is today. Just a couple more points. We
use "in" to talk about how long we need to do something. For example:
They finished the job in a month. That means that it took them a month to
finish the job. The report took me four hours, but I'm sure I could've done it
in two hours if I hadn't checked my email every ten minutes. We also use it
to talk about the end of a period of time in the future. For example: I'll be
at the bar in half an hour. That means that if it is now 8 o'clock,
I'll be there at 8:30. Another example: George is going to
Sydney in two weeks. That means that if today is the first of April, he's going to
Sydney around the 15th of April. Okay, now let's look at "at". Firstly, we
use "at" for precise moments, such as times of the day. At 5:00 o'clock. At 3:30.
Many people finish work at 5:00 o'clock. Frank finishes work at 3:30. Yup. At noon. At midday. In case you didn't know, noon and
midday mean exactly the same thing. At midnight. At sunrise. At sunset. At dawn. At dusk. At lunchtime. In informal language we often just
say "at lunch". I'll see you at lunch. We also use "at" for holidays and festivals if they last more than one day. For example:
at Christmas, at Easter, at New Year's. When we think of Christmas, we don't
normally just think of the 25th of December. Christmas celebrations often last two or
three days. Just like if we say "New Year's". We normally mean the 31st of December
and the 1st of January. If we're talking about a specific day,
we use "on". On Christmas Day, for example. As usual, Frank drank too much on Christmas Day. But we'll look at that more closely when we
see the rules for "on". In British English "at" is also used before "weekend". I'll see
you at the weekend. In American English it's normally "on the weekend" and in
Australia we also usually say "on the weekend". There are also a few expressions
that we always use with "at" and you just have to know them. For example, if two
things happen concurrently, we say "at the same time". Frank and George never wake up
at the same time. Frank always sleeps in. We also say "at the moment",
which means now or at present. For example: Call him later because
he's working at the moment. She's from New York, but at the
moment she's living in Los Angeles. You can say "in the moment",
but it has a different meaning. We say "in the moment" if there is
a focus on the present. A common phrase is "to live in the moment". To live
in the moment means to pay special attention to what is happening right now
without thinking about the past or the future. Similarly we say "at present", which
is another way of saying "at the moment". It's just a little more formal than "at
the moment". We can say "in the present", but the meaning is different. "In the present"
is just like saying "in the moment". For example: You should try to live in the present and
not worry so much about the future. To summarise: "at the moment" and
"at present" mean now, and we use "in the moment" and "in the present" if we are
actively focusing on what is currently happening. And now it's time for "on"! Apart from in a few fixed expressions, we
basically just use "on" for days and dates. So we say "on Monday". Frank got arrested
on Monday. If you sometimes forget which preposition to use with days, try to
think of Monday, because it also has O N in the middle. On Monday. On Sundays. On Sundays I often go to the beach. We usually use the plural - so "Sundays" and
not "Sunday" - if it's for a habit or something that happens regularly. Now
here is something that can be a bit confusing. We also use "on" for parts of
the day if a day of the week comes before it. For example: on Monday morning. I have an appointment on Monday morning. We don't say "in Monday morning". On Wednesday afternoon.
On Friday evening. On Saturday night. Another thing that can be a bit
confusing is that in spoken and informal English, we often drop the "on"
when it's in front of a day. Let's look at these sentences again. We can also say:
Frank got arrested Monday. Sundays I often go to the beach. I have an appointment Monday morning. As I said, we also use it in front of dates.
For example: on the 1st of April. Many people play jokes on their
neighbours on the 1st of April. On the 23rd of October. Be careful. In British English
we normally write dates like this, but we don't say them that way. For
the first one here, we would say: on the 1st of April.
On the 1st of April. For the second one we would say:
on the 23rd of October. On the 23rd of October. Here are some more examples with "on".
On my birthday. My boyfriend broke up with me on my birthday. On Christmas Day. On Year's Eve. Remember that for special holidays and festivals we also use "at", but we use "at"
when we are talking about the general period. For example, if you say "I saw
Frank at Christmas," it might mean that you saw him on the 24th of
December, on the 25th, on the 26th, or if you were really lucky, maybe
you saw him on all of those days. We use "on" for specific dates, so we say
"on Christmas Day" and not "at Christmas Day" because Christmas Day is the 25th of
December. Just like we say "on New Year's Eve" because that's the 31st of December.
We don't say "at New Year's Eve". Now we're going to look at what we use with
"beginning", "middle" and "end". With "beginning" you can either use "at" or "in", so "at the
beginning" or "in the beginning". You can also say "at the end" or "in the end", but
there's a small difference in meaning. We use "at the end" to talk about
the last part of something. For example: At the end of the book,
the two main characters get married. The motorcycle was invented
at the end of the 19th century. "In the end" is similar to "finally" or "eventually". Frank was considering becoming a K-pop
singer, but in the end he decided not to. Good choice, Frank. We looked everywhere for George and in
the end we found him in the library. For "middle" we always use "in".
In the middle. We're going on holiday in the middle of the year. Before we
finish, I'd just like to mention one point that's very important. When we use
"last", "next", "every", "this" or "that", we don't use "in", "at" or "on". For example:
Ethel went to Sydney last October. We don't say "in last October". He is starting his new job next Monday. We don't say "on next Monday". Here it's just "next Monday". She goes home every Christmas. I'm going to a party this weekend. Thanks very much for watching, everyone. Don't forget to subscribe if you don't
want to miss any new videos, and if you'd like to practise using
these prepositions, please write some sentences in the comments. See you next time! As I... Okay, now... Just a quick... ... the water and the... Fuck's sake! Fuck. Prepositions... ... winter... Now let's see the words... ...on my birthday! English is dumb.
