When - Time and Dates


We use phrases with prepositions as time adverbials:

We use at with:

clock times

at seven o'clock

at nine thirty

at ten fifteen

mealtimes

at breakfast

at lunchtime

at teatime

these phrases

at night

at the weekend

at Ramadhan



We use in with:

seasons

in "the" spring

summer

winter

years, centuries

in 2009

in 1998

in the 60's

months

in January

in February

in April

parts of the day

in the morning

in the afternoon

in the evening



We use on with:

days

on Monday

on my birthday

dates

on the thirty-first of July

on June the fifteenth


We say at night when we are talking about all of the night:

When there is no moon, it is very dark at night.
He sleeps during the day and works at night.

but we say in the night when we are talking about a specific time during the night:

He woke up twice in the night.
I heard a funny noise in the night.


We often use a noun phrase as a time adverbial:

yesterday

last week, month, year

last Satuday

the day before yesterday

one day · week · month

the other day, week, etc

today

this week, month, year

this Tuesday

-

-

-

tomorrow

next week, month, year

next Friday

the day after tomorrow

-

-


We can put time phrases together:

We will meet next week at six o'clock on Monday.
I heard a funny noise at about eleven o'clock last night.
It happened last week at seven o'clock on Monday night.

We use ago with the past simple to say how long before the time of speaking something happened:

I saw Jim about three weeks ago.
We arrived a few minutes ago.

We use in with a future form to say how long after the time of speaking something will happen:

I'll see you in a month.
Our train's leaving in five minutes.

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