Friday, December 21, 2007

To and At

I hear so many mistakes about the preposition to that I've decided to write about it a bit more. The most basic use of this is to describe movement: "I'm going to the mall." However, this can also express time, as in, "The show will be from 7.30pm to 9pm."

Now, this post is about the difference between to and at. I've recently been hearing people say, "I'm going at Megamall" which is incorrect. Although both are prepositions of place, each has a different meaning. We use to when we're talking about movement and at when we're talking about a position. Check out this sentence: "We are going to the cafe we were at yesterday." If you look at the sentence, the speaker saying that he/she is going to a the cafe he/she was in yesterday.

The same rule applies to time. To is used when there's a movement of time (7pm to 9pm) while at is used for a particular position in time ("the show is at 7pm). We never say "the show is at 7pm to 9pm." Rather, it's "the show is from 7pm to 9pm."

Where to are you all going for the holidays?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I used to be puzzled with the usage of these two prepositions. I have learned sth. from your explanation. Thanks! What about the difference between "at" and "in"?