HI Manuel, In English, we have "in" and "into", and we're not always exact about the way we use these. Germans use *in* with the dative case to say "in" when they mean "inside a place" (or limited motion within an area). And, they use *in* with the accusative case to indicate motion ins Kino gehen = in das Kino gehen = in + accusative case = going to the movies (going into the movie theater, there is movement, so the accusative case is used. The accusative form for Das Kino is the same as the Nominative form: *das*) in dem Kino = in the movie theater (think of: sitting inside the movie theater. *Dem* = Neuter, singular, dative) am = an dem. And *an* is just the preposition that is used to expressed "at", in certain situations - and in the case of days of the week, Germans use *an + day of week* to express "on + day of week* - ie, on Monday, On Tuesday, on the weekend, and even "at the end of the month". So, sometimes *an* is equivalent to english *on* and sometimes it means *at*. 1. Man kann in Detroit ins Kino gehen - one can go (in)to a movie (theater) in Detroit (no article in front of Detroit, but if there were, it would be in the dative case) 2. Man kann in Detroit am Abend spazieren gehen - One can go for a walk *in* the eveing in Detroit ( at the time of the evening, English= in the evening). There aren't really any tricks that I've found to help with German prepositions. One needs to learn them with each expression. But as for the difference between whether *in* or *am* and when each should be used - if you can answer why "in" or "at" is used in English, then you will have your answer. I'm a native English speaker, and I can't answer that question - at least not in a way that will help you in learning any language. It's just the way that languages develop. Most times, *at* = where one is located; and most of the time *in* = what surrounds an individual (He was in a bathroom at the office). Yes, he is *in* the office, technically, but that's simply not the way it is expressed in English (or in German). You're an advanced English speaker according to your profile - do you understand the difference in English?

In addition to the other answers: I'd recommend learning prepositions together with the verbs or specific meanings. While it's often possible to figure out which preposition to use from a general idea what they mean, sometimes it just doesn't make any sense. So you learn: in etwas (Kino,Theater) gehen = eine Vorstellung besuchen in + Name einer Stadt = Ortsangabe an + Tageszeit (Morgen, Mittag, Abend) = Zeitangabe um + Uhrzeit = Zeitangabe and so on. (And of course ins = in + das, am = an + dem).

Wie alle Sprachen hat jede Präposition mehrere Bedeutungen: 1. "in": lokal: - Bewegung (engl = motion into/ to a place) Ich gehe ins Kino/in den Club/in die Oper / in die Uni/ins Büro - keine Bewegung ( engl. in/ at a place) Ich wohne in Madrid. Die Kinder spielen im Garten. Bis 20:00Uhr arbeite ich im Büro Aber: at home = zu Haus temporal: In der Nacht ist es kühl. In der nächsten Woche machen wir eine Party. Im Januar ist es kalt. Im Sommer fahre ich nach Paris. Im 21. Jahrhundert gibt es keine Dinos mehr. 2. "an" lokal - Bewegung Wir fahren ans Meer. - keine Bewegung Ich studiere an der Uni Madrid. Die Kinder liegen am Strand. An der Ecke gibt es eine Pizzaria. temporal: Am Morgen/am Vormittag/am Mittag/am Nachmittag/am Abend/am Wochenende/am Montag/ habe ich viel zu tun. Wie im Englischen gibt es keine klare Regel, man lernt es.

Man kann auch in den abend spazieren gehen, aber das ist auch was anderes. Man sagt: am Abend. Ende der Geschichte! BTW: in (das Kino) = direction in (Detroit) = place; no direction here an (dem Abend) = no direction You need to pay a little more attention to such detail.