Top Tips Grammar: Adverbials of time

Main points

*Adverbials of time can be time expressions such as ‘last night’.
*Adverbials of time can be prepositional phrases with ‘at’, ‘in’, or ‘on’.
*‘For’ refers to a period of time in the past, present, or future.
*‘Since’ refers to a point in past time.

 

a) You use adverbials of time to say when something happens. You often use noun groups called time expressions as adverbials of time.

yesterday	last night	next week
today	last year	the day after tomorrow
tomorrow	next Saturday	the other day

Note that you don’t use the prepositions ‘at’, ‘in’, ‘on’ with time expressions.

- One of my children wrote to me today.
- So, you’re coming back next week?

You often use time expressions with verbs in the present tense to talk about the future.

- The plane leaves tomorrow morning.
- They’re coming next week.

 

b) You can use prepositional phrases as adverbials of time:

*‘at’ is used with:

Clock times	: at eight o’clock, at three fifteen
Religious festivals	: at Christmas, at Easter
Mealtimes	: at breakfast, at lunchtimes
Specific periods	: at night, at the weekend, at weekends, at half-term

 

*‘in’ is used with:

Seasons	: in autumn, in the spring
Years and centuries	: in 1985, in the year 2000, in the nineteenth century
Months	: in July, in December
Parts of the day	: in the morning, in the evenings

Note that you also use ‘in’ to say that something will happen during or after a period of time in the future.

- I think we’ll find out in the next few days.

*‘on’ is used with:

Days	: on Monday, on Tuesday morning, on Sunday evenings
Dates	: on the twentieth of July, on June 21st
Special days	: on Christmas Day, on my birthday, on his wedding anniversary

 

 

c) You use ‘for’ with verbs in any tense to say how long something continues to happen.

- He is in Italy for a month.
- I remained silent for a long time.
- I will be in London for three months.

Remember that you don’t use ‘during’ to say how long something continues to happen. You cannot say ‘I went there during three weeks’.

 

d) You use ‘since’ with a verb in the present perfect or past perfect tense to say when something started to happen.

- Marilyn has lived in Paris since 1984.
- I had eaten nothing since breakfast.

 

e) You can use many other prepositional phrases as adverbials of time. You use:

*‘during’ and ‘over’ for a period of time in which something happens.

- I saw him twice during the holidays.
- Will you stay here over Christmas?

*‘From... to/till/until' and ‘between... and’ for the beginning and end of a period of time.

- The building is closed from April to May.
- She worked from four o’clock till ten o’clock.
- Can you take the test between now and June?

*‘by’ when you mean ‘not later than’

- By eleven o’clock, Alex was back in his office.
- Can we get this finished by tomorrow?

*‘before’ and ‘after’

- I saw him before the match.
- She left the house after ten o’clock.

‘Since’, ‘till’, ‘until’, ‘after’, and ‘before’ can also be conjunctions with time clauses.

- I’ve been wearing glasses since I was there.

 

f) You use the adverb ‘ago’ with the past simple to say how long before the time of speaking something happened. You always put ‘ago’ after the period of time.

- We saw him about a month ago.
- John’s wife died five years ago.

Remember that you do not use ‘ago’ with the present perfect tense. You cannot say ‘We have gone to Spain two years ago’.

 

 

 

 

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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
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See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este Blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.

Top Tips Grammar: Prepositions of place

Main points

*You use ‘at’ to talk about a place as a point.
*You use ‘in’ to talk about a place as an area.
*You use ‘on’ to talk about a place as a surface.

 

a) You use ‘at’ when you are thinking of a place as a point in space.

- She waited at the bus stop for over twenty minutes.
- ‘Where were you last night?’ – ‘At Mick’s house’.

 

b) You also use ‘at with words such as ‘back’, ‘bottom’, ‘end’, ‘front’, and ‘top’ to talk about the different parts of a place.

- Mrs. Reategui was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
- They escaped by a window at the back of the house.
- I saw a taxi at the end of the street.

You use ‘at’ with public places and institutions. Note that you also say ‘at home’ and 'at work’.

- I have to be at the station by ten o’clock.
- We landed at a small airport.
- A friend of mine is at Training College.
- She wanted to stay at home.

You say ‘at the corner’ or ‘on the corner’ when you are talking about streets.

- The car was parked at the corner of the street.
- There’s a telephone box on the corner.

You say ‘in the corner’ when you are talking about a room.

- She put the chair in the corner of the room.

 

c) You use ‘in’ when you are talking about a place as an area. You use ‘in’ with:

*a country or geographical region

- When I was in Spain, it was terrible cold.
- A thousand homes in the east of Scotland suffered power cuts.

*a city, town, or village

- I’ve been teaching at a college in London.

*a building when you are talking about people or things inside it

- They were sitting having dinner in the restaurant.

You also use ‘in’ with containers of any kind when talking about things inside them.

- She kept the cards in a little box.

 

d) Compare the use of ‘at’ and ‘in’ in these examples:

- I had a hard day at the office. (‘at’ emphasizes the office as a public place or institution)
- I left my coat behind in the office. (‘in’ emphasizes the cinema as a building)
- There’s a good film at the cinema. (‘at’ emphasizes the cinema as a public place)
- It was very cold in the cinema. (‘in’ emphasizes the cinemas as a building)

 

e) When talking about addresses, you use ‘at’ when you give the house number, and ‘in’ when you just give the name of the street.

- They used to live at 5, Weston Road.
- She got a job in Oxford Street.

Note that American English uses ‘on’: ‘He loved on Penn Street’.

You use ‘at’ when you are talking about someone’s house.

- I’ll see you at Fred’s house.

 

f) You use ‘on’ when you are talking about a place as a surface. You can also use ‘on top of’.

- I sat down on the sofa.
- She put her keys on top of the television.

You also use ‘on’ when you are thinking of a place as a point on a line, such as a road, a railway line, a river, or a coastline.

- Loreto is on the north coast.
- Yurimaguas is on the Ipuatia Avenue between Tabalosos in Lamas.

 

 

 

 

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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
---------------------------------------------

 

See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este Blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.

Phrasal verb list: At

At tiene función de preposición. Podemos encontrarla en 47 combinaciones de Phrasal Verbs según la lista de Abz Ingles. La preposición At tiene como función básica el de indicar puntos en espacio y tiempo, en los Phrasal Verbs tiene dos sentidos elementales: la primera es el de indicar que una acción es llevada hacia cierta dirección, como en aim at (apuntar a algo); la otra por el contrario indica que alguien está tratando de atacar, aprovechar y retener algo sin, a veces, tener éxito, como en jab at (pinchar a alguien o algo).

Esta es una lista de todos los Phrasal Verbs existentes con la partícula At, están ordenadas de manera alfabética y se ha considerado combinaciones múltiples (de tres partículas a más). Recuerda que para ver otros usos de la partícula At, revisa la lista de partículas que Abz ingles ha elaborado para ti.

 

Phrasal Verbs with 'At' particle

Aim at	Guess at	Level at	Sniff at
Average out at	Hack at	Look at	Stick at
Balk at	Hack away at	Marvel at	Strain at
Chip away at	Hammer away at	Nibble at	Strike at
Claw at	Hint at	Paw at	Talk at
Come at	Hit at	Peck at	Tear at
Drive at	Jab at	Pick at	Throw at
Eat away at	Jib at	Play at	Throw back at
Fly at	Jump at	Pluck at	Tug at
Get at	Jump out at	Poke at	Whittle away at
Get back at	Keep at	Prod at	Wonder at
Get on at	keep on at	Pull at	Worry at
Go at	Laugh at	Put at
Grab at	Leap at	Sip at
Grasp at	Leap out at	Sneeze at

 

 

 

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Lista básica de Phrasal Verbs - Lista de Particulas
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Around - At - Away
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See also:

Phrasal Verbs	Common Phrasal Verbs
¿Qué es un Phrasal Verb?	Abz Grammar Top Tips
Importancia de los Phrasal Verbs	Thematic list of Idioms
Tipos de Phrasal Verbs	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs List	Lista de Términos Gramaticales

Phrasal Verb: Partícula At

At es una preposición. Podemos encontrarla en 47 combinaciones de Phrasal Verbs según Abz Ingles. El uso común de At es de indicar puntos de referencia en el espacio y tiempo, para decir donde está alguna cosa o cuando y donde están ocurriendo las cosas. Hay dos funciones particulares que At agrega al verbo:

Direction
Dirección

At es usado en combinaciones para indicar que una acción está siendo llevada a cabo en una dirección en particular. Aim at significa intentar lograr algo. Talk at, significa hablar hacia (en dirección) alguien.

Aim at	Go at	Look at	Throw at
Drive at	Laugh at	Marvel at	Work at
Get at	Level at	Talk at

 

Attempting, Attacking, Seizing, and Holding
Atentar, Atacar, Capturar y Retener

At se usa en combinaciones con verbos que expresan ideas de ataque, golpe, captura, retenimiento entre otras. Estos verbos son mayormente intransitivos aunque a veces pueden ser usadas con vebos transitivos también sin At.

Usando verbos en combinaciones con At, la persona insinúa que alguien está tratando de atacar, capturar o retener a alguien aunque no tenga éxito en hacerlo. Jab at, significa tratar de golpear algo aunque no tengas éxito al hacerlo. Get at someone, significa atacar a alguien verbalmente, gritándolo.

At también tiene un uso similar a las combinaciones que significan romper algo  o remover pequeñas piezas. Pick at your food, significa comer pequeñas cantidades de algo. Tear at significa intentar romper algo  hasta convertirlo en piezas más pequeñas.

Otras combinaciones indican que una persona o animal capturan o atentan algo. Claw at, significa arañar a alguien o algo con garras.

Puedes usar la partícula At en un sentido no literal de captura. Grab at o Leap at, significa sacar ventaja de una oportunidad u oferta. Guess at significa intentar entender algo (pregunta, problema, etc.) tratando de responder aunque no tengas suficiente información.

Claw at	Hack at	Peck at	Sip at
Comme at	Hit at	Pick at	Strike at
Fly at	Jab at	Play at	Tear at
Get at	Jump at	Pluck at	Throw at
Grab at	Leap at	Poke at	Tug at
Grasp at	Nibble at	Prod at	Worry at
Guess at	Paw at	Pull at

 

 

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Lista básica de Phrasal Verbs     -     Lista de Particulas
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Apart  -  Around  -  As  -  Aside  -  At  -  Away  -  Back  -  Before  -  Behind
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See also:

Phrasal Verbs	Common Phrasal Verbs
¿Qué es un Phrasal Verb?	Abz Grammar Top Tips
Importancia de los Phrasal Verbs	Thematic list of Idioms
Tipos de Phrasal Verbs	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs List	Lista de Términos Gramaticales

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.