to

Go to a Place But Don’t Go to an Action

I went to the classroom. You went to the classroom to study.

Hello, it has been a while.

I am just adding this because some of my students have had problems with ‘ing’ actions and ‘go’ verbs.

“He went to shopping.” MISTAKE.
“He went shopping.” CORRECT.

Go to a place but don’t go to an action.

Use ‘go to’, ‘went to’ or ‘gone to’ with places.

“I went to Paris.”

“She went to work.” (‘Work’ here is a place, where she does her job.)

Use ‘go to’, ‘went to’ or ‘gone to’ with a plain verb if someone goes somewhere to do something.

“I go out to the club on Thursday night. I go to dance.”

“I go to fish for dinner at the beach.”

Use ‘go’, ‘went’ or ‘gone’ without ‘to’ for activities in special places.

“They have gone swimming.” (Most people don’t have swimming pools at home.)

“My dad went bowling.” (I don’t know anyone with a bowling alley at home).

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, leave a comment.

Use ‘To’, ‘At’ and ‘In’ with Locations

Terrible picture showing in, at and on.

The prepositions of location ‘in’, ‘at’ and ‘to’ are quite difficult for beginners to use and even some advanced learners make mistakes with the words. Here are some examples to show how they are used when talking about locations.

To

Use with destinations.

Let’s go to London.
Come to my house.

Don’t use with the verb ‘visit’.

Let’s visit to London.
Visit to my house.

Don’t use with ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘somewhere’, ‘anywhere’ or ‘nowhere’.

Come to here.
Let’s go to somewhere.

At

Use after a ‘be’ verb or gerund (~ing) phrase and before businesses, educational places, amenities

I’m at Harrods.
She was at school.
They’re meeting us at the park.

Don’t use with ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘somewhere’, ‘anywhere’ or ‘nowhere’.

I’m at here.
She was at there.
There meeting us at somewhere.

In

Use with cities and large buildings.

I was in Dublin last week.
I’m at the coffee shop in Suncoast Mall.

It can be used with ‘here’, ‘there’ and in some unusual cases with ‘somewhere’ and/or ‘anywhere’.

He’s in here.
You can’t go in there.
I tried to get in somewhere for university but I couldn’t get in anywhere.

If this was helpful, why not leave a short comment to let me know or pass the link on to a friend.

Understand and Tell the Time

clock_12oclock
Twelve o’clock, midday, noon or midnight? All are correct.

Giving the time and understanding it should be easy but because there are a few ways to say the same time it can be difficult.

Use 12-hour clock when speaking

Only the army and people working in transport use 24-hour clock in speech to tell the time.

“It’s one o’clock” is a natural way to give the time.

“It’s thirteen o’clock” is understandable but strange.

Check your minutes

The basic rule is:

__:00 is o’clock;
__:01 to __:30 is past;
and __:31 to __:59 is to.

__:15 is quarter past;
__:30 is half past;
and __:45 is quarter to.

Everything else uses the number of minutes, and don’t use the word ‘minutes’ with ‘past’ or ‘to’ unless you are in a very formal situation or the number of minutes does not end with five or zero.

clock_tenpast6

Ten past six or six ten.

clock_fiveto3

Five to three or two fifty-five.

clock_halfpast6

Half past six or six thirty.

clock_quarterpast2

Quarter past two or two fifteen.

clock_quarterto4

Quarter to four or three forty-five.

You might also find this podcast episode helpful.