English 24
28th June 2003
A little bit of GRAMMAR

Hi guys
This week we continued to give you a few tips on prepositions, and in today's programme we concentrated on "in".
We usually use in with towns and villages and cities.
§ My parents live in Newcastle. (Not at Newcastle)
§ My brother lives in London. (Not at London)
§ My sister is staying in Paris for the next few months.

But you can use at when the town, village or city is a point on a journey:
§ Do you know if this train stops at Verona?
§ I have to get off at York.
§ We stopped at a pretty town on the way to Madrid.

However we say that we arrive IN a country or a town:
§ When did Jo arrive in Italy?
We say arrive AT with other places (buildings, etc.) or events:
§ What time did Sarah arrive at work/school this morning?
§ Steve said he'd arrive at the party/hotel/hospital at 9pm.
We say arrive home without a preposition.
§ When did you arrive home?
§ I arrived home at 7 o'clock.

We also gave you a few other grammar tips to follow:
We started with the preposition to
We say go to / come to /travel to a place or an event.
§ Go to England
§ Fly to New York
§ Go to the supermarket
§ Be sent to prison
§ Walk to school
§ Return to Ireland
§ Go to bed
§ Be taken to hospital
There are many more besides..
Now notice how we say, "get to" meaning, "arrive" but arrive in /at
§ What time did you get to the station?
§ What time did you arrive at the station?
§ What time did you arrive in London?

We also say go home/come home/get home with no prepositions!!!! Remember it is a very common mistake to put prepositions here…
§ It's late let's go home.
§ What time did you get home after the party?
§ The children came home after football practice.

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1
Complete the sentences below with a preposition if necessary.
E.g. What time did you arrive at the airport?

1. I arrived __ home exhausted after my flight from New York.
2. What time do you usually arrive _ work in the morning?
3. What time do you usually arrive _ home in the evenings?
4. The train for Glasgow arrives___ platform 6
5. When we arrived _ the party there was no one there.
6. When I first arrived _ Italy I felt very homesick.

Exercise 2
Complete the following sentences with to or leave the sentence as it is if the preposition isn't necessary
E.g. When are you going to Barcelona?
1.The children are very tired; it's time for them to go _ bed.
2.It's getting really late I really must go_ home
3.I slept-in this morning so I didn't get _ work until after 10 o'clock.
4.Paul was injured in the car crash, so he had to be taken _ hospital.
5.The guy who caused the crash will probably be sent _ prison.
6.When the weather is fine I always walk _ home from work.

Answers

Exercise 1
1._; 2.at; 3._; 4.at; 5.at; 6.in;
Exercise 2
1.to; 2. _; 3.to; 4.to; 5.to; 6. _;