Business English Grammar Prepositions of Time Review

Put these time expressions into the correct column by the preposition they take

the 1980’s, 1997, the last financial year, last year, this month, July, 1^st May, Monday, Friday evening, New Year’s Eve, tomorrow, next week, the day before yesterday, Christmas, the weekend, 6 p.m, 16:35 on Monday, the evening, the early morning, night, lunchtime, the summer, the beginning of December, the end of April, midnight, my birthday, our wedding anniversary, every Thursday, the 20^th Century

At	On	In	No preposition

 

What general rules patterns can you see in the columns above? Which prepositions are used with:

Days and dates

Months, seasons and years

The morning, the afternoon and the evening

Night

Other periods of time longer than a day

This/ next/ last

Every

 

Put true time expressions similar to those above in the sentences below, to make true sentences about you.

I last spoke English at work

I went to bed on Saturday night

I left work on Friday

 

In pairs, read out just the time clauses you have written above, and try to guess which of the sentences each one goes with

Connect the following time expressions with the sentence it can go with (only one of each pair is possible)

I have been working hard                                                                                    all morning

I have been working hard for

I have had 3 meetings                                                                                                               on Friday afternoon

I last had a meeting

I have completed two very important projects                                this month

I completed two very important projects

I have known my boss                                                                                           during a conference

I first met my present boss

I haven’t used English at all since                                                                       Tuesday

I haven’t used English at all for

I see the MD                                                                                                                             this morning

I’m seeing the MD

Write a time expression for each of the other sentences above.

 

Make the questions for all of the sentences above. Ask and answer them in pairs.

—————————————————-

PDF version for easy saving and printing: Business English Grammar Prepositions of Time Review