The ‘at’ for stadiums also applies to Britain, at even in colloquial situations gets applied to towns and cities, and also names of clubs, albeit only occassionally. “The replay will be played at Arsenal”.
I’ve never understood the idea that a week starts on a particular day. But I’ve come across people (and software) that has such a preconception.
And I never could get my head around diaries that had headings like ‘week 17’. I’ve no intention of being pregnant, so I don’t need to conceptualise time in this way!
Possibly; Sunday is the first day of the week here; Monday is the first working day, but the week ends right in the middle of the weekend.
This seems to be how these things are talked about where I grew up in the states. It is certainly how most of the wall calendars I see in US shops are. If you have a week by week day timer calendar book they tend to start with Monday and end with Saturday and Sunday.
We always use “at” with teams. “Atlanta at New York” or “Atlanta @ New York” is not uncommon in one-line summaries where it’s necessary, and in discussion of a team’s next game etc. we say “Pittsburgh is playing at Miami next week”.
Sunday as the first day makes sense if you consider the biblical basis. Saturday is the Sabbath, after all.
Well, y’all have truly well and hijacked this thread, but in an entertaining fashion. And now I know more than I did previously, so…cool.
Potter kind of threw me when he used the expression “at the weekend,” too, but my big OMG YOU REALLY SAY THAT moment was when he wrote, during a casual IM conversation, “I could go to gaol.” I squeed muchly. I’m sure there were lots of Canuckeriffic things I said too.
Well, it would be no use if you were (miraculously) pregnant, unless the week one usefully co-incided with your pregnancy week one, but it can be useful for financial thingies. Even although financial years can be a different beast altogether. 
Re. start of week: I have always understood that the week is taken to start on a Sunday, except that I, and I imagine a lot of people, tend to think (informally) of Monday being the first day of the week.
I dislike the “Friday” week usage, although there is nothing wrng with it. Perhaps it is a geographical thing, as I am much more used to saying “a week on Friday”.
I believe the institution of Sunday as the first day of the week (here at least) has its roots in religion.
Try it this way - when using “at” as a preposition of place it tends to be associated with a purpose rather than a defined area
He’s at school. You don’t know exactly where he is (in the classroom, in a science lab, in the showers after sport) but you do know the general area and you think he’s there to study.
He’s at work. Same thing, not definite, but you know why he’s there. He’s in his office. within the defined area.
*I’ll meet you **at *the restaurant. I’m probably outside, but maybe inside, at the bar (having a drink 
)
I’ll meet you in the restaurant. No doubt.
You can keep the same idea going when using ‘at’ as a preposition of time.
On Christmas day. The 25th Dec.
At Christmas. The period around Christmas, when exactly is subjective 21st - 27th ? 23rd-26th ?
In March. March has a clear beginning and end.
At the weekend. When does the weekend start ? when you finish work on Friday? when you go out on Friday evening ? Saturday morning ? It’s not defined.
I’m not saying these are the rules absolute and writ in stone btw, just saying that when teaching propositions it’s often useful to be able to give guidelines to usage .
ps in my own northern English dialect we say ‘on the weekend’ but then we call both friends and strangers “duck” !
Checking on your location, I see you’re not American. Here, we get into a whole 'nother area of difficulty (discussed many times here). You and I would know that if he’s “at school”, then he’s there to study, and if he’s “at the school” he could be there to change light bulbs, or a million other reasons, but our American friends might not be so clear on it.
I still have a theory that Americans adopted the “at the” formation soley for the convenience of Leslie Nielsen. 
Don’t Americans also say “he’s in school” meaning he’s enrolled in a course of study? Australians would tend to say “he’s at Uni”. Not that he’s at the University campus right this minute, but that he’s enrolled there and attends lectures etc.
You’re right. I was thinking of the hospital example instead. The patient is in hospital, and the doctor is in the hospital.
Ah yes The LoadedDog, that had skipped my mind but since Kyla is teaching “British English” we should be helping her get out of the American mindset
That is an interesting way of phrasing it… Pretty much like you’d be saying “at the week’s end”, which makes perfect sense.
I’ve also always gotten a kick out of how some British people will put “Right,” at the start of a sentence, then “yeah?” at the end of it, in a “understand?” sort of way. "
“Right, so take this road down to the next corner, yeah?”
Hmph. Apparently, British English is required for the Bulgarian university entrance exams (American spelling counts as a misspelling!) but the farthest I am going to go ius uuse exceussive us. I’m not going to put on a phony British accent or anything.
Really, the textbooks (which, I may add, are horrible and full of egregious errors, which is why I wanted to double check this word usage) use lots of British references, but I am going to try to work in information about all the English-speaking countries.
I always thought it was nearly analogous to “Okay”: don’t British use “right” to affirm something as well as to start off a sentence, like Americans do with “okay”? (I mean, American’s use “right” to affirm as well, but do Brits do it more?)
Hahaha. 
How do you feel about “Now then”, which makes NO sense, really?
As in:
“Now then, let’s get on with this painting, tidying, whatever”