prepositions of place

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For today’s fun language tip we are going to look at the prepositions of place at, in and on.

We can use at, in and on when we talk about the location of things.
What do these three prepositions tell us about the location?

In general, we use:

At for a POINT (un punto specifico)
At for an ENCLOSED SPACE
(uno spazio delimitato)
On for a SURFACE
(una superficie)

Look at some examples:

Mike is at the bus stop waiting for a bus.
Mike è alla fermata ad aspettare un autobus.

James doesn’t like to be locked in his office all day; he likes to be outside.
A James non piace stare chiuso in ufficio. A lui piace stare fuori.

When I got home, I saw a cat sitting on my car!
Quando sono tornato a casa ho visto un gatto steso sulla mia macchina!

Let’s take a look at a list of some words which often follow these prepositions of place:

AT
home – work – school – university – college – a station – an airport – the seaside

IN
the newspaper – bed – hospital – prison – the street – the sky – a photograph – a picture/photo – the mirror – the corner (of a room).

ON
the left – the right – the ground floor – the first, second, etc, floor – on a chair (sit) – on the radio – on television/TV – on a horse – on the corner (of a street).

An important rule to remember is, that we use on for most means of transport:
Un’importante regola da tenere in mente è che “on” si usa con la maggior parte dei mezzi di trasporto:

I am on the bus/my bike/my motorbike/my skateboard/a plane/the train at the moment.

However, we do not use on for cars and taxis; we use the preposition in:
Tuttavia, non usiamo “on” con le macchine e i taxi, con i quali utilizziamo invece la preposizione “in”.

I am in my car/a taxi at the moment.

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