at
part of speech
preposition; noun (@, the at sign in emails and posts)
meaning for a pupil
1) At shows where something is: at the shop, at school. tree →
2) At shows when: at noon, at the start. tree →
3) At shows what you look, point or aim towards: look at the board. tree →
4) At gives a price or a speed: at 5 dollars each, at 60 km an hour. tree →
5) At shows how well someone does something: good at maths. tree →
6) (casual) «Where it's at» means where the fun or the action is; «Where are you at?» asks how far you have got. tree →
7) (rough) «Shout at», «have a go at» or «be at someone» means to tell them off or nag them angrily. tree →
8) (formal) The exam voice says «at a rate of», «at a cost of», «at the commencement», «at the conclusion». tree →
9) After a word like "not", "at all" means in any way or to any degree. tree →
sense in the lessons
«look at the word», «at the start» (the starting amount), «at the end» (the final amount), «at the shop»; in everyday life «at home», «at night», «at last», «at once», «at least», «at all», «good at maths»; prices «at 2 dollars each» point to multiplying; online «@» in an address or before a name; in rough talk «stop having a go at me»; in the exam voice «at a unit cost of», «at the commencement of the period»
examples
- Not quite. Look at the word «equal»: it tells us to divide. tree →
- At the start Ken had 12 stamps. tree →
- At the shop Mia buys 3 pens. tree →
- We have lunch at twelve o'clock. tree →
- Look at the bird on the fence! tree →
- She is very good at swimming. tree →
- Pencils are sold at 50 cents each. tree →
- At last the bus arrived. tree →
- At least 3 people must play this game. tree →
- at the shops rn, need anything tree →
- Stop having a go at me, I counted them twice! tree →
- At the commencement of the journey a vehicle contained 30 passengers, at a fare of 2 dollars each. tree →
- "He isn't a rabbit at all! tree →
note
No operation clue; «at the start» marks the starting amount. Trap: «at the end» asks for the amount after all the changes. «3 pens at 50 cents each» hides equal groups: 3 × 50; «at a unit cost of» means the same in an exam. «at least 3» means 3 or more; «at most 3» means 3 or fewer. Use «at» for a point (at the door, at 3 o'clock), «in» for inside or longer times (in the box, in July). «at the commencement» means at the start.
In the corpora
- Stories about annoying colleagues told at home are private and should not be repeated outside.
- Shops, hospitals, buses and factories need people at all hours, so their workers follow a rota that can change every week.
- Overtime is working extra hours beyond the normal ones; sometimes it is paid at a higher rate, sometimes not paid at all.
- At the other end of working life comes retirement, when people stop paid work for good.
- Job hunting means searching adverts and sending applications, often dozens before getting anywhere; many get no reply at all.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «at» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.