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Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com,
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and today's lesson, we're looking at how to talk about days and times.
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And we're going to start by looking at prepositions, because sometimes
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it's a little bit confusing which preposition to use for particular references to the day
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or the time. Okay?
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So, there are two main prepositions. There's "at" and there's "in", and "in the" usually
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or always, probably. So, with "at", we can have the... A specific time on the clock:
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"At 2pm" or "At 2:00", "At 2:30", "At midnight", all the times on the clock or on your watch
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is "at". And then when you're referring to mealtimes: "At breakfast time", "At lunchtime",
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"At teatime". We like teatime, here in the UK. It's very traditional. Around 4:00, nice
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cup of tea. Lovely. "At teatime", "At dinnertime", and "At night". Okay? So, "At night". But
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when it comes to other words that are linked with morning, afternoon, evening, night - we
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use a different preposition. So, it's just "night" that has "at" with it there, and then
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the mealtime, and the specific times on your watch.
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Okay, so let's have a look at the "in" preposition, and see what goes with "in". So, you can say:
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"In the morning", "In the afternoon", "In the daytime", meaning anytime during the day.
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"In the daytime", "In the middle of the day", so that's roughly maybe midday, 12:00 or 1:00,
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2:00, that sort of time. "In the middle of the day". "In the evening". You can also say:
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"In the night", which has the sort of meaning: "During the night".
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We've got: "At night" there, but you can say: "In the night" meaning:
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"Oh, I woke up in the night because I'd had a bad dream."
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So: "I woke up during the night because I had a bad dream." So you can use
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it with "night" with both prepositions. Okay? And then: "In the middle of the night". You
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can also say: "I woke up in the middle of the night." Okay, so I hope that helps to
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make clear which preposition to use. And now we're going to move on and look at some
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past, present, and future words. Okay.
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Okay, so moving on to look at some words about the past, the present, and the future. Okay?
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Past, present, future. We have, for example: "yesterday". Yesterday was Tuesday.
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"Today". Today is Wednesday. "Tomorrow", tomorrow is Thursday. Okay? Yesterday, today, tomorrow.
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Then, when you're talking about different parts of today-okay?-we use "this", so you
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say: "This morning". That is whether it is morning at the moment:
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"This morning we are going to do something" or you can say: "This morning we had our breakfast at 9:00." So,
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"this morning" you can use in the present or the past. "This morning", "this afternoon".
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And again, oh, you could say: "This afternoon we will", so that's like future,
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or: "This afternoon we are doing something", in the present.
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So you can use these past, present, future, but it's all with:
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"This morning", "This afternoon", "This evening", but it then
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changes. We don't say: "This night", we say: "Tonight", all one word, "Tonight". Okay?
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So that's just one little exception: "Tonight". Okay.
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And then looking at something similar for yesterday, we can say: "Yesterday morning",
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"Yesterday afternoon we went to see a film", "Yesterday evening we went to see some friends",
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but again, we don't say: "Yesterday night", we say: "Last night". Okay, so another little
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exception. "Tonight", "Last night" are different. Okay. Right.
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And then moving on to look at the future: "Tomorrow morning", "Tomorrow afternoon",
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"Tomorrow evening". There is a good program on television tomorrow evening. And this time
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it's the same: "Tomorrow night". So, it doesn't change. "Tonight", "Last night", "Tomorrow night".
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And then moving on to look either further back in the past, or other times in the present,
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or further into the future. With the day of the week, you can say: "Last Monday", which
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was Monday of last week; you could say: "This Monday", Monday of this week; or "Next Monday"
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in the future, "Monday of next week". Okay? And similarly, you can use these in combination.
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"Last week", "This week", "Next week", "Last month", "This month", "Next month",
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"Last year", "This year", and "Next year". So they're all very straightforward. Okay?
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Right. And then to finish with just two little interesting points. First of all, this little
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word: "ago", "ago". "A week ago", that means this time last week.
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"A week ago, I was on holiday."
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Okay? Or: "A week ago, I was in my office."
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Or: "A week ago, I was travelling on a train."
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It's what you were doing this time last week; seven days ago.
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So: "A week ago", you could use it with "A month ago", "A year ago". You can make it less, you can
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say: "A minute ago", "An hour ago", "A day ago", okay? So it's always in the past. And
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even longer time: "5 years ago", "10 years ago". So it's a useful little word.
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And then finally, a lot of people get confused by this strange word: "a fortnight". They
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might think: "Well, four... Four nights." No, it's not four nights. It actually... It
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was a very old expression, meaning 14 nights. Okay? And if you think 14 nights, well, okay,
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that's two weeks. So, 14 days, but 14 nights. Okay? So, it just means... "A fortnight" means
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two weeks. You might find it in books like Jane Austen, but we still use it today as
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well to say: "A fortnight", "A fortnight ago, I was on holiday",
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or "We are going on holiday for a fortnight". So, we use it a lot in the UK.
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Right, so I hope that was all useful for you.
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If you'd like to test your knowledge on this topic,
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please go to the website: www.engvid.com and do the quiz.
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And if you've enjoyed my lesson, perhaps you'd like to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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And that's it for today.
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Hope to see you very soon.
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Okay. Bye for now.