Learning to correctly use prepositions in a second language is a grammar problem that many language learners encounter. Learning new prepositions is often hard because the prepositions that a person knows in his or her native language are used differently in the language he or she is trying to learn, in this case English. This is why prepositions, which are often very small words, can cause some big headaches.

Today we have a quick review of three easily confused prepositions in English. Hopefully this brief review will clear up some of the confusion that you might have about how these prepositions are used differently in English. Below are some hints on when to use the prepositions: in, on, and at. There are also some practice exercise below too.

Hints:

at: Use this preposition with locations/destinations; it can be used with physical spaces and also specific times (i.e. 3:00pm).

in: Use this preposition when talking about spaces with limitations and enclosed spaces; including spaces with boundaries likes cities, towns, states, countries and also for periods of time (i.e.3 days or 1 year).

on: Use this preposition for describing locations above a surface; also use  this when talking about a space within a larger area, this preposition is also used when referring to a day by name (i.e. Monday) or date by number (the 15^th) and an event taking place on that day.

Practice exercise:

1. I like a little milk ______ my coffee. (on/in/at)
2. I just bought some books ______ the bookstore. (on/in/at)
3. I haven’t spoken to him ______ four months.  (on/in/at)
4. We live ______ a small town. (on/in/at)
5. I wish the whales stayed ______ the surface of the water longer so we could see them. (on/in/at)
6. I just heard a song that I like ______ the radio. (on/in/at)
7. Meet me ______ the mall and we’ll go in to do some shopping together. (on/in/at)
8. It’s not a good idea to stand up ______ a canoe. (on/in/at)
9. We are leaving ______ exactly 3 o’clock. (on/in/at)
10. The next meeting is ______ Tuesday ______ nine o’clock ______ the morning. (on/in/at)

1. in; 2. at; 3. in; 4. in; 5. on; 6. on; 7. at; 8. in; 9. at; 10. on, at, in