In the good old days

Question

Why do we say "IN the good old days" but "ON weekdays"? Apart from just memorizing it without asking, is it possible to have a logical explanation? Thanks.

Milky · Accepted Answer

We use IN for non-specific times and ON for days and dates. The good old days are mostly seen as non-specific period.

in the morning

in winter

at/on weekends

on my birthday

on Tuesday sometime in the morning

Simon_phlui · Answer

I have heard of this way of deciding which preposition to use.
However, it sometimes seems not too reasonable.
You may argue that we don't know exactly which morning
we are talking about, so we say "I go to school IN the morning."
But you also don't know exactly which day you are talking
about in "I go to school ON weekdays."
So it shouldn't be just because of being specific or non-specific times.

Any other opinion?

Rommie · Answer

Apart from just memorizing it without asking, is it possible to have a logical explanation?

Oh, it would be so great if that were the case, but think the answer is more likely to be no. There are times when English is just not logical, and in this case I think milky's answer is about as good as it gets. I've never figured out why we use "on" at all in this context - I mean, it's not like anything is on top of anything else.

We also use AT for being really precise (as in, "meet me at four o'clock"). Except in Ireland, where "meet me at four o'clock" seems to mean "meet me sometime between lunchtime and late evening" - you have to say "meet me dead on four o'clock" if you want to be precise in Ireland. (That's an observation, by the way).

Milky's advice will cover almost all situations. If you find any exceptions, just memorize those.

Rommie

Whl626 · Answer

How about,

eg. We decided to take a walk ON a cold morning

Milky · Answer

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc.

In the good old days

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