in vs at

It is a well known English grammatical fact that both in and at are prepositions. They may
appear to be alike but have different usage in English grammar. First of all it is to be
understood that in and at describe any noun in the location case.
In other words it can be said that in and at describe the location of a particular noun. Look
at the two epressions! in the house and at the college. "oth these epressions give an idea
about the location namely! house and college respectively.
The preposition in is used to indicate the location of someone at a particular point of time.
#ee the eample! he was in the church when I went to his home. $ere the person was in the
location called church when his friend visited his home.
The preposition at is used to indicate the proimity of nearness of something. For eample
in the sentence! the dog was at the gate! the preposition at implies the nearness of the dog
to the gate.
The preposition in conveys the idea of well within whereas the preposition at does not
always conveys the idea of well within. Look at the two eamples! the thought occurred in
the mind and he was in the canteen at the railway station.
In the first sentence in conveys the meaning of well within whereas in the second sentence
the preposition at does not convey the meaning of well within but only implies the idea that
the canteen was present near the railway station or outside or attached to it.
%s a matter of fact both the prepositions are used in phrases. These phrases too give different
meanings according to the contet. The common idea with which these two prepositions are
used is of course to describe the noun in the locative case.
&#amand is in the house.&
'e know from this sentence that #amand is inside the house.
&#amand is at the house.&
'e cannot tell from this sentence if #amand is inside the house or outside the house but we
know he is somewhere at the house.
Today I was at the office. If someone phoned at my home asking where I was they would
have been told &(obyn is at the office.&
'hile I was there if someone was looking for me! they would have askedwhere is (obyn) For
most of the day the response would have been*&#he is in her office.&
I have a room in a building that is my office! however during the day Imove to and from my
room to interact throughout the building! the wholeplace where I work can be refered to as
&the office& in which case youwould say +at+ but when I am actually within my office you
would say+in+.
%re you more confused now)
I think I am.
(ight now I am sitting at my desc infront of my computer in my office at home.
&at& is more general than and can include &in&.
I was at the theatre last night. ,Even during intermission! when I had a smoke outside of the
theatre! I was at the theatre! i.e.! even while I was not in the theatre! I was at the theatre. 'hile
I was at the theatre! I saw a play.-
I was in the theatre last night. ,I was physically inside the building. There may have been a
play. There might not have been a play. I may have been looking at the theatre with the intent
of buying it.-