Prepositions of place: in, on, at
460 fill-in-the-gap exercises, 46 tests of ten
In for inside something, on for a surface, at for a point.
Practice this form
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Getting your first question ready.
The three ideas
Picture the noun and ask what shape it has:
- an enclosure — something with walls, edges or borders → in
- a surface — something you put things on top of → on
- a point — a place you think of as a dot on a map → at
in the box, on the box, at the box are all possible and all mean different things.
The same place, three ways
Which one you use depends on how you are thinking about the place, not on the place itself:
- I’ll meet you at the cinema. — the meeting point
- I saw it in the cinema. — inside the building
- There’s a poster on the cinema. — on its wall
Towns, buildings, addresses
- in a town, country, region: in Bergen, in Norway, in the north
- at a building when you mean its purpose: at school, at work, at the station
- in a building when you mean inside it: in the school, in the office
- at a full address, in a street: at 14 King Street, in King Street
Transport
in a car or taxi, but on a bus, train, plane, ship or bicycle:
She got in the car and I got on the bus.
Fixed phrases
at home, at work, at school, in bed, in hospital, on holiday, in the middle, at the top, on the left
All forms
| Preposition | Idea | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| in | inside something with limits | in a box, in the car, in London, in the garden |
| on | on a surface or a line | on the table, on the wall, on the third floor, on the coast |
| at | a point or an address | at the door, at the station, at work, at 14 King Street |
Examples
Taken from the 460 sentences in this drill. The answer is highlighted.
- The cat is hiding in the box we brought back from the store, and we cannot see her at all.
- The cat is asleep on the warm radiator.
- He works at a university and they pay him once a month.
- They are having a picnic in the park, under the big tree by the pond.
- Can you see the note on the door? Someone taped it there this morning.
- We met at a cafe that neither of us had been to before, chosen because it was halfway between our offices.
- She spent the worst of that winter in a rented attic whose single window faced a blank wall.
- Passengers are already standing on platform 2, well before the train is due.
- We met at the bus stop outside the school.
- The spare key is in the drawer next to the spoons.
- The library stands on a street so narrow that no two cars can pass.
- The teacher is standing at the front of the class.
Mistakes to avoid
Wrong: She lives at Oslo. correct: She lives in Oslo.
A town or city is treated as an area, so in.
Wrong: The picture hangs in the wall. correct: The picture hangs on the wall.
A wall is a surface.
Wrong: I'll meet you in the bus stop. correct: I'll meet you at the bus stop.
A bus stop is a point, not an enclosure.