Teacher Discussion Forums

Native speakers, I need your help!

Growing up in the US I learned it's "on the weekend" and that's the way I teach it to my students. Now I came across "at the weekend" in Murphy's grammar. My students asked me which one was correct and I had no other answer than "at" might be British and "on" American English. Can anyone tell me when it's "on" and when "at"? I could not make it out from the context!

You've replied to yourself already, since it's one of those little "geographical" differences. Both 'at the weekend' and 'on the weekend' are correct. The former is British and the latter is American English.

Beijing one of the only native speakers at the school I work at, I am contsantly getting questions like this. And actually just the other day I got asked the same thing! My fellow teacher said that the book said "at the weekend," and I just chalked it up to being a lousy text ---as I have caught more than one very obvious mistakes. But the more we asked around we came to the same conclusion: its and American vs. British thing. I learn more British everyday, like revise/review and others. We actually found a on-line American to British English dictionary, which is pretty interesting.