At 1. A specific location:.... at 23 Chestnut Street; at the park 2. A point in time:......... at 5 o'clock; at Christmas 3. A condition:.............. at peace; at war; at rest 4. An activity:.............. at work; at school; at play 5. Towards:................. Look at someone; wave at someone Note: When referring to a specific location or to a point in time, “at” is usually used. When referring to a certain street or a certain day, “on” is usually used. When referring to a location as an area, or when referring to a unit of time longer than a day, “in” is usually used. e.g. at Christmas; on Christmas day; in the Christmas holidays In 1. Place thought of as an area:............. in London / in Europe 2. Within a location:............................. in the room / in the building 3. Large units of time:.......................... That happened in March / in 1992. 4. Within a certain time:....................... I will return in an hour. 5. By means of:................................... write in pencil / speak in English 6. Condition:........................................ in doubt / in a hurry / in secret 7. A member of:................................... He is in the orchestra / in the navy 8. Wearing:......................................... the boy in the blue shirt 9. With reference to:............................ lacking in ideas / rich in oil On 1. Touching the surface of:................... on the table / on the wall 2. A certain day:.................................. That happened on Sunday / on the 6th of June. 3. A certain street:............................... on Main Street 4. About:............................................. a book on engineering 5. A state or condition:......................... on strike / on fire / on holiday 6. By means of:................................... live on a pension / shown on television

Maybe it can help :) IN --> Something GENERAL/BIGGER TIME (centuries, decades, years, months, weeks) LOCATION (country, city, neighborhood) Source of information (written material: book, magazine, newspaper, etc.) Ex.: I live in Rome. Let's meet in July. I read it in a book. ON --> Something MORE SPECIFIC/SMALLER TIME (days, weekend) LOCATION (street, avenue) Source of information ((electronically: the radio, the internet, tv, etc.) Ex.: I live on Main Street. The garbage truck comes on Wednesdays. Let's meet on Friday. I watched it on TV. AT --> Something VERY SPECIFIC/SMALLEST TIME (hours) LOCATION (address, specific location) Ex.: I live at 33 Main Street. Let's meet at 10 o'clock. I am posting this IN July ON Friday AT 10:00 a.m.

Santiago this is a very big question. Prepositions are very difficult.And there are prepositions of place and also of time. You are talking about place. There is no reason WHY. You just need to learn how we say those things.There is no logic or explanation. Usually we say at for a point or location At home, at school, at work we say IN for a larger place In the bank, in the shop and we say "on vacation" it's a fixed expression. These are set expressions. Of course this is only a short explanation of a long subject.

Querido brasileiro, há algumas coisas que são difícil para explicar. Diz se " eu estou de férias ", não é ? Porque não "... nas férias...." que responde melhor à filosofia da minha língua? E porque não está "...na casa..." mas esta "...em casa..." Não se usa um artigo definido para uma casa definida! Pode me explicar esse milagre da gramática portuguesa ? :-)))

It's interesting your explanation Ruthi, but I think a bank isn't necessarily larger than a school or a home ;) Really, as you said, I think there is no a logic explanation about that, we have to learn by heart these expressions :)