Using IN, ON, and AT – Prepositions of Place - Learn English

 Generally speaking, we use in, on, and at in the following ways:

• in when we want to emphasize something is inside an object or a place.
• on when talking about a surface.
• at when talking about a location or point.

 

Using IN:

in + an object

• The gift is in the box.
• The dirty clothes are in the washing machine.

in + city, a country, a state/province, a continent

• Doris lives in Chicago.
• Juan was born in Mexico.

in + class, bed, jail

• She is in bed.
• The kids are in class.

in + the hospital

• Tom is in the hospital.

in + a room

• She is in the living room.
• They are in the kitchen.

in + car

• We waited in the car.

 

Using ON:

on + surface

• The clock is on the wall.
• The books are on the desk.

on + a street, road, avenue

• Alice wants to live on Popular Street.

on + the bus, the plane, the train, etc.

• He is on the bus.

 

Using AT:

at + a street address

• My office is at 122 Main Street.

at + work, home, school

• Dad is at work.

at + the bottom, the top, the side

• The title of this post is at the top of this page.

at + location (at the bank, at the post office, at the bus stop, etc.)

• Ken is at the store.

 

* Notice that we use in with cars, but use on for most other forms of transportation.

 

Just to Clarify

Usually at is used when speaking about locations and in is used when the speaker wants to emphasize that he/she is inside, not outside a particular building or location.

To clarify this, let’s look at the following examples.

I am at the store.	In this example, I could be inside the store, at the store’s entrance, or outside the store.
I am in the store.	In this example, I am emphasizing that I am inside the store.