Prepositions of Time
Prepositions of Time - we use these prepositions to talk about time, either with a specific start and finish or general periods of time.
Contents |
Specific Times
on
We use on to talk about days or a dates:
at
We use at to talk about time - either by the clock or midnight/midday
in
We use in to talk about other times: of the day, month, season or year:
by
Not later than a specific time.
Periods of Time
When we talk periods or the length of time, we use other prepositions:
since
A period from the past and continuing to now:
for
But if the period of time started in the past and also finished in the past, we use for:
This is also true for a definite period of time in the future:
from...to/till/until
To talk about a period of time and mention the specific start and finish:
after
To talk about something happening later than a point in time, we use after:
before
Conversely, before refers to something happening earlier than a point in time:
ago
To refer to a point in the past in relation to now; in other words how long before now something happened:
between
This is used to talk about the time which separates two points:
during/throughout
We use during followed by a noun to show an event across an entire period:
Or it can show specific points in a period:
If we want to emphasise the entire period from the very beginning to the very end, we can use throughout instead.
