Collins Cobuild English Grammar (95 page)

Here is a list of words that are used to talk about periods of the day:

morning

afternoon

evening

night

~

dawn

daybreak

first light

sunrise

dusk

sunset

nightfall

~

daytime

night-time

breakfast-time

break-time

lunchtime

teatime

dinnertime

suppertime

bedtime

naming days

4.88
    The seven days of the week are
proper nouns
:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Saturday and Sunday are often referred to as
the weekend
, and the other days as
weekdays
.

A few days in the year have special names, for example:

New Year’s Day

Valentine’s Day

Presidents’ Day

Good Friday

Easter Monday

Fourth of July

Labor Day

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Boxing Day

New Year’s Eve

You can also name a day by giving its date using an
ordinal
number.

‘When does your term end?’ – ‘
First of July
’.
The Grand Prix is to be held here on the
18th July
.
Her season of films continues until
October the ninth
.

You can omit the month if it is clear from the context which month you are referring to.

So Monday will be the
seventeenth
.
St Valentine’s Day is on the
fourteenth
.

There is more information about ordinals in the Reference Section.

months, seasons, and dates

4.89
    The twelve months of the year are
proper nouns
:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

There are four seasons:
spring
,
summer
,
autumn
(usually
fall
in American English) and
winter
.
Springtime
,
summertime
, and
wintertime
are also used.

Some periods of the year have special names; for example,
Christmas
,
Easter
, and
the New Year
.

years, decades, and centuries

4.90
    Years are referred to in English by numbers. When you are speaking, you refer to years before 2000 as
nineteen sixty-seven
(1967), or
seventeen hundered
(1700), for example.

…the eleventh of January,
1967
.
A second conference was held in February
1988
.
My mother died in
1945
.

When you are speaking, you refer to years between 2000 and 2009 as
two thousand
(2000) or
two thousand and eight
(2008), for example.

Years after 2009 are said as either
two thousand and ten
(2010),
two thousand and eleven
(2011), etc. or as
twenty ten
(2010),
twenty eleven
(2011), etc.

To refer to periods longer than a year, decades (ten years) and centuries (a hundred years) are used. Decades start with a year ending in zero and finish with a year ending in nine:
the 1960s
(1960 to 1969),
the 1820s
(1820 to 1829). If the century is already known, it can be omitted:
the 20s
,
the twenties
,
the Twenties
.

To be more specific, for example in historical dates,
AD
is added before or after the numbers for years or centuries after Jesus is believed to have been born:
1650 AD
,
AD 1650
,
AD 1650-53
,
1650-53 AD
. Some writers who prefer to avoid referring to religion use
CE
, which stands for
the Common Era
:
1650 CE
.

BC
(which stands for
Before Christ
) is added after the numbers for years or centuries before Jesus is believed to have been born:
1500 BC
,
15–1200 BC
. An alternative abbreviation that does not refer to religion is
BCE
, which stands for
Before the Common Era
.

Centuries start with a year ending in two zeroes and finish with a year ending in two nines. Ordinals are used to refer to them. The
first century
was from
0 AD
to
99 AD
, the
second century
was
100–199 AD
, and so on, so the period
1800–1899 AD
was the
nineteenth century
and the current century is the
twenty-first century
(2000–2099 AD). Centuries can also be written using numbers:
the 21st century
.

at
for specific times

4.91
    If you want to say when something happens, you use
at
with clock times, periods of the year, and periods of the day except for
morning
,
evening
,
afternoon
, and
daytime
.

Our train went
at
2.25
.
I got up
at eight o’clock
.
The train should arrive
at a quarter to one
.
We go to church
at Easter
and
Christmas
.
I went down and fetched her back
at the weekend
.
On Tuesday evening, just
at dusk
, Brody had received an anonymous phone call.
He regarded it as his duty to come and read to me
at bedtime
.
At night
we kept them shut up in a wire enclosure.
Let the fire burn out now. Who would see smoke
at night-time
anyway?

You can also use
at
with
time
and similar words such as
moment
and
juncture
and with units of clock time such as
hour
and
minute
.

General de Gaulle duly attended the military ceremony
at the appointed time
.
It was
at this juncture
that his luck temporarily deserted him.
If I could have done it
at that minute
I would have killed him.
There were no lights
at this hour
, and roads, bungalows, and gardens lay quiet.

at
for relating events

4.92
    You can also use
at
when you want to relate the time of one event to another event such as a party, journey, election, and so on.

I had first met Kruger
at a party
at the British Embassy.
She represented the Association
at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association
in Chicago.
It is to be reopened
at the annual conference
in three weeks’ time.

4.93
    
At
is also used with ages, stages of development, and points within a larger period of time.

At the age of twenty
, she married another Spanish dancer.
He left school
at seventeen
.
At an early stage of the war
the British Government began recruiting a team of top mathematicians and electronics experts.
We were due to return to the United Kingdom
at the beginning of March
.

in
for periods of time

4.94
    If you want to mention the period of time in which something happens, you use
in
with centuries, years, seasons, months, and the periods of the day
morning
,
afternoon
, and
evening
. You also use
in
with
daytime
and
night-time
.

In the sixteenth century
there were three tennis courts.
It’s true that we expected a great deal
in the sixties
.
Americans visiting Sweden
in the early 1950s
were astounded by its cleanliness.
If you were to go on holiday on the continent
in wintertime
what sport could you take part in?
To be in Cornwall at any time is a pleasure; to be here
in summer
is a bonus.
It’s a lot cooler
in the autumn
.
She will preside over the annual meeting of the Court
in December
.
In September
I travelled to California to see the finished film.
I’ll ring the agent
in the morning
.
Well, she does come in to clean the rooms
in the day-time
.

Note that if
morning
,
afternoon
, and
evening
are used with a modifier or a following phrase or clause, you use
on
. See paragraph
4.96
for details.

in
for specific time

4.95
    
In
is also used when you want to specify a period of time, minutes, hours, days, and so on, using an
ordinal
.

Vehicle sales
in the first eight months
of the year have plunged by 24.4 per cent. …
in the early hours
of the morning.