At / On / In - Prepositions in English that refer to place and time

As a learner of English, it is sometimes tough to distinguish which preposition to use in a given situation. Well hopefully today I can enlighten you with some information that will help your learning. If you have ever been confused with at/on/in, keep reading because you may find this information useful. I am not giving full sentences because I feel like if you are learning this kind of thing you can formulate your own sentences. If you are a learner of English though and would like some help, feel free to comment or email me for assistance. :) Anyways here we go....

Prepositions of PLACE 

(smaller) Most Specific : at

at the mall                   at night*  
at the store                 at home
at a soccer game        at school 
at the market              at work
at the hospital             at Easton
at the library               at Walmart
 at the airport             at the office
at the gym                  at the park

*Idiomatic phrase

Sometimes "at" is used with a single noun, but sometimes "at" is used with a determiner (a, an, the) and a noun. Make sure to practice when you use a determiner and when you do not. 

Somewhat Specific : on

on Maple Street         

on the way

on the highway

on the road

on Willams Ave.

(bigger) Least Specific : in

in Columbus

in Ohio

in the United States

in North America

in the Eastern Hemisphere

Hopefully these examples can give you some knowledge on how to use prepositions of place. 

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Prepositions of TIME

(smaller) Most specific : at

at 5:00pm

at midnight

at noon

at midday 

at 12:36am

Somewhat Specific : on

on Monday
on the weekend
on Saturday
on time

(bigger) Least Specific : in

in October

in summer

in winter

in 1989

in the 21st century

in the morning*

in the afternoon*

in the evening*

*Idiomatic phrase

Hopefully these examples can give you some knowledge on how to use prepositions of time. 

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*What is an idiomatic phrase?

An idiomatic phrase is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements.

Basic English: Idiomatic phrase = a group of words that is understood in one language because of previous language knowledge of the phrase. (The idiomatic phrase will not translate directly into another language.)

*I do not own any pictures in this post.

Simple Past Tense and Past Progressive Tense in English - ESL - EFL

Simple Past Tense and Past Progressive Tense in English - ESL - EFL - TESL - TEFL - TESOL

The simple past tense and the past progressive tense are used to talk about situations or events that happened in the past. 

To represent time in a more pictorial fashion, I have created a visual of time here:

This visual will be used as my base picture for all explanations of verb tenses in English.


Simple past = a situation or event that began and ended at a specific time in the past.

Form: Subject + verb (past tense)

(The verbs in past tense are in bold.)

Examples: 

I ate pizza yesterday. 

You drank all the milk this morning.

He saw the movie last week. 

She climbed the mountain.

We went to the grocery store. 

They drove to Florida last year.

You can also use a when-clause with the simple past. If you use a when-clause with the past, the when-clause action/event  happens before the other event. 

The when-clauses are in [brackets.]

Examples:

[When I got home,] I went to bed.

I hit the ball [when he pitched it to me.]

[When I drove to the store,] they didn't have any milk.

She ate all of her dinner [when her father asked her.]

Past Progressive = a situation or event that happened for a duration in the past.

Form : Subject + was/were + verb(+ing) 

(The verbs in the past progressive tense are in bold.)

Examples:

I was not listening to you yesterday. 

You were speaking English three minutes ago. 

At 2 pm yesterday, he was playing soccer on Field 3. 

She was smoking a cigarette last weekend.

We were eating for four hours yesterday.

They were stealing music from the internet last week.

You can also use the past progressive to talk about two actions that were happening at the same time. 

Examples:

While I was eating dinner, my roommate was baking a cake. 

My best friend was studying for her test while I was reading a book.

They were dining at the restaurant while we were bowling.

You were doing your homework when I was talking to my mom.

Lastly, you can use the past simple with the past progressive to talk about an actions that happens for a duration in the past while another actions happens in the middle of it. 

(The actions highlighted in blue happened in the middle of the action highlighted in red.) 

Examples:

You were studying for your test when I came home. 

She was standing outside when it began to rain.

When I got home, my roommate was eating her dinner.

They were running in the park when they saw a beautiful woman.

This is simply a review of the tenses. More practice with these examples will be on another post. So keep looking and keep learning! :)

*I did create all of the pictures from scratch for this post. 

The English Verb: to be. Basic English Grammar on "to be". Present/Past. Affirmative/Negative.

Hello there everyone!

Thank you for reading and following along. I am currently a graduate student at Ohio Dominican University studying for my Master's in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I hope I can help you build a foundation of English through helpful diagrams and explanations. So here goes nothing... =D

The first lesson I would like to write about is the verb "to be."

 Why is it important?
Well, "to be" is one the most used verbs in the English language and should be studied carefully to master.

What does "to be" mean?
To be = used to describe a quality, identity, characteristic, condition, or, state of a person or thing.


Here is a chart I made for "to be":

to be [present tense] Affirmative Singular Verb Contraction Plural Verb Contraction I am I'm we are We're you are You're you (all) are You're he is He's they are They're she is She's it is It's [present tense] Negative Singular Verb Contraction Plural Verb Contraction I  am not am not we are not We aren't you are not you aren't you (all) are not You aren't he is not he isn't they  are not They aren't she is not she isn't  it is not it isn't [past tense] Affirmative Singular Verb Contraction Plural Verb Contraction I was [none] we were [none] you was [none] you (all) were [none] he was [none] they  were [none] she was [none] it was [none] [past tense] Negative Singular Verb Contraction Plural Verb  Contraction I was not I wasn't we were not We weren't  you were not You weren't you (all) were not You weren't he was not He wasn't they were not They weren't she was not She wasn't it was not It wasn't

Following up with some examples:

Affirmative sentences (true)

We can talk about a person in general, being singular. We can also give the person a more descriptive title, like actor or actress (a person that acts). Notice that some nouns can have a feminine(actress) and masculine(actor) version. We should talk about "things" if we use "it" as our pronoun. "It" does not refer to a person.

I am a person.                                             I am an actor.

You are a person. (Singular form)                You are an actor.

He is a person.                                             He is an actor.

She is a person.                                            She is an actress.

It is a thing.                                                   It is an animal. 

We are people.                                            We are actors / actresses. 

You are people. (Plural form)                       You are actors / actresses. 

They are people.                                          They are actors / actresses.  

Notice: In the plural form, if the entire group is female, we will use the feminine form (actresses). If the entire group is male, we will use the masculine form (actors). If there is a mixed group (both male and female), we will use the masculine form (actors). 

Negative sentences (false)

Using the negative form of the verb "to be" means that we are saying something is not true. 

We can use a general term like animal, or we can be more specific and pick an animal. I am in fact not an animal. I am a person. I am a human. When referring to "it" we have to use a non-person or animal. So we can use the negative form with person because "it" is not a person. 

I am not an animal.                                 I am not a cat.

You are not an animal.                           You are not a dog.

He is not an animal.                                He is not a bird.

She is not an animal.                               She is not a squirrel.

It is not a person.                                    It is not a human.                         human = person

We are not animals.                                 We are not cats.

You are not animals.                                You are not dogs.

They are not animals.                               They are not birds.

Note: When we use the plural form of the verb, we must make sure our nouns change to match our singularity or plurality. 

Past tense sentences (Affirmative and Negative)

Using the past tense of the verb means that we are talking about something that already happened. 

We usually talk about feelings, needs, or emotions to express past events. Hunger and thirst are typical examples of human needs. If we eat or drink, our needs are met. Then our hunger and thirst are in the past.

Thirsty = to have thirst(need water)        Hunger = to be hungry (need food)

I was hungry                           I was not hungry.

You were hungry.                   You were not hungry.

He was thirsty.                        He was not thirsty.

She was thirsty.                       She was not thirsty.

It was thirsty.                           It was not thirsty.

We are hungry.                       We are not hungry.

You are thirsty.                       You are not thirsty.

They are hungry.                      They are not hungry. 

I hope this was not too confusing. Please let me know how I could add or modify this modest lesson to better fit your English needs! 

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your comments and questions.