When to use ON time or IN time in English | Advanced English grammar

Learn the difference between ON time and IN time in English in this advanced English grammar lesson.

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ON TIME

We use ON TIME when there is a specific moment when something is supposed to happen or something is expected to happen, and this thing will happen at the planned time, for example:

Example 1: When I had an office job in England, I started working at 8 o'clock in the morning and I was ON TIME every day for work, if I wasn’t ON TIME I got a little red cross by my name, and if I wasn't ON TIME (or in other words if I was late) too many times, my boss would have a word with me... so I always arrived ON TIME.

Example 2: The train to London leaves my town in England at 8:48 in the morning every Saturday and it usually leaves ON TIME. In other words it usually leaves at 8:48, it leaves ON TIME.



IN TIME

In time means that something happened at the last minute, at the last moment, and if didn’t happen there would be a bad consequence.

Example 1: Once I went to Liverpool to watch the football and there was so much traffic on the motorway and on the roads going into Liverpool that I arrived just when the players were coming on to the field. I arrived IN TIME for the game, because I was there just before the game started and if I was late there would be a bad consequence: I would miss part of the game. So... I arrive IN TIME.

Example 2: The last exam I did was very, very difficult, so I did it very slowly and I didn’t think I was going to finish in time, but fortunately, towards the end of the exam I got quicker and thankfully I finished IN TIME and passed. So I finished at the last moment and the bad consequence is that if I didn’t finish before the finish time, I would have missed some questions and I might have failed the exam. Fortunately, I finished IN TIME.



EXPRESSIONS

Now I’m going to give you two typical common expressions using in time that native speakers always use:

● JUST IN TIME
This means just at the last minute, the last second, so we could say that if you watch Superman, you will know that he always arrives JUST IN TIME to save Lois Lane.

● JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME
This means right at the last possible second, so when Superman goes to save Lois Lane, he always destroys the bomb JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME.