at/in - which preposition to use?

American English would accept either.

I agree with Punkey. The choice is probably just a matter of local dialect, speech patterns or personal habit. Both equally acceptable, as far as I know.

As far as I learned in is always within and at can be any place inside or outside by the place mentioned-
I am waiting for you at the supermarket. Outside or inside.
I am in the supermarket buying some food.
I am at the cinama just now. He is in the cinema watching........
He was sitting in the corner in the bar waiting for me. I was standing at the corner outside waiting for him. So we never got together.

English english even uses 'down' occasionally.

I'm down the library.
I'm down the pub.

Are you down the pub, when it is up a hill?

Yep.

In fact, I prefer going uphill to the Pub, as it's a lot easier to stagger downhill.

Is that the same as "get down"?

No, get down sounds more like a command.

We just tend to drop the 'at' or 'in', etc., in certain circumstances.

I suppose it should be down at the pub, or down to the pub, but we rarely say it that way.



"I'm going down the pub later, do you want to come?"

"He's down the pub and says he'll be back in an hour."

'Up' and 'round' are also acceptable, but it's much more common to hear 'down'. It depends on where the the person has gone, I suppose.

Down the shops.
Down the market.
Down the town.
Down the tip (nowadays called a recycling centre)
Round his Mum's house.
Round his mate's house.
Gone up London.


It's not proper and formal English, but it's how we talk in normal conversation. Other regions of Britain may differ slightly, but this is how we ordinary folk converse in and around London, and possibly the entire Southern half of England.

My favourite expression comes from Dorset. When someone is enquiring as to where someone has gone, he'll ask "wherezeeetoo then?".

We learned at school that " go up to London" is proper and very correct English.

I can't imagine an American using "in" in any of those sentences, even if talking on cell phone (and that would get you at least glared at if you were at the library). The sentences are awkward and unnatural in any context other than a telephone conversation. Americans would not be very likely to say cinema, although it's not unknown. The one big exception would be at/in the hospital. An American who says he or she is at the hospital in just visiting. An American who says he or she is in the hospital is saying that he or she is a patient there.

Just out of interest, Set, what would you say re. The Cinema?

Here, it's usually "the pictures".

"Fancy going to the pictures tonight?"

Probably most people would say "the movies." At one time, when i was still a kid, there was a still popular regionalism in New York, to say "the moving pictures." That was pronounced "da moompichers."

Love it!

I'm suddenly hankering after a dose of The Sopranos again.

Most of my family is from Yorkshire. I remember having a conversation with my cousin about town. I would say 'gone down town,' he would say 'up town.' We were too young to talk about pubs

My Nan was from t'North, and she always said up.

Funny ol' weld.