Tag Archives: prepositions

A Word on Grammar: At the End or In the End?

A word on Grammar,

One week ago, my son came home from school and asked me: Mum, is there a difference between “at the end ” and “in the end“? Of course! I said. “But… is it very very important?”
I guessed he had made a mistake when writing his essay and the teacher had taken points off his mark .

If you go to a dictionary it will tell you that ” at the end” refers to a point when something finishes; and “in the end” introduces the result of the outcome of something . Well, you see,  I cannot disagree  with these grammarians but my son, being 16, would probably not understand these abstract definitions. So, I decided to show him some pictures and give him a more down-to-earth explanation to see if it helped him.
“In the end” means the same as “eventually” ” after something has been thought about or discussed a lot”

“At the end“ is more physical like “at the end of the road” “at the end of the book”, though you can also say ” at the end of the day”.

Hope this helps you! Now, why don’t you try doing an exercise about this?

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A Word on Grammar: on the corner or in the corner?

A word on Grammar, , ,

That’s a question I’m often asked by my students and here’s the answer I offer them.

What kind of “corner” are you referring to? Is it the corner of a room or the corner of a street?

♥ If you are giving directions  to a shop, then you should say:

This shop is on the corner of High Street

♥ If you are saying that a person is sitting in a chair in a room, then:

Mary is sitting in a chair in the corner of the sitting-room.

Summarising: you use in, when the corner is inside and on, when the corner is outside.

Note: you can also say at the corner to refer to the corner of a street.

I’ll wait at the corner/ I’ll wait on the corner.

A word on Grammar: on the weekend or at the weekend?

A word on Grammar, , ,

No wonder we sometimes get confused with prepositions. They are crazy to learn and frustrating to teach, iiiif they can be taught !

So, the question of whether you say at the weekend or on the weekend is not a question of being grammatically correct  but of  speaking American English or British English, being at the weekend (BrE) and on the weekend (AmE).

So, both are correct. My only tip is that you stick to either American or British. Nobody says Alo (as in Santo Domingo) when answering the phone in Spain, although we understand it.