Be there at 6PM. vs. Be there for 6PM. FOR vs. AT

[Vt_Backwoods]

I grew up in southern Cailfornia, subsequently moved to Vermont.
Nearly everyone here, including teachers, business professionals, and
mountain men, all seem to use "for" when referencing time. Examples,
"be there for 7:00AM", "scheduled for 1:00PM", "Finish chopping that wood,
or we won't make it to Bingo for 6:00pm". I need to know if it's just me,
in all cases I would use "at" instead of "for". Is it bad grammer, or is it preference??

I'm not even going to go into my issues with 'So don't I....". Everyone I've
confronted about it denies having said it anyway. Please tell me, "for" vs. "at",
which one is correct to use when referencing time?

[Ched133]

Hi

In almost all cases, the preposition for time is "at"

For is used for an event or location

I think i've heard people say "the meeting is scheduled for 2pm this afternoon" i'm not sure if this is right.

thoughts from anyone?

[Torsten]

The meeting is scheduled for 4 pm.
The meeting starts at 4 pm.
Please be there at 4 pm.

So, a meeting or event can be scheduled for a certain time but it starts at a certain time.
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[Ched133]

Hi

So the key is really the verb "schedule"

Mike is scheduled for 4pm this afternoon and never scheduled at 4pm

[Vt_Backwoods]

I found a website that has a handy grid with prepositions of time.

englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/preposition_time.htm

It says;

At - part of the day ( at night )
time of day at ( 6 o'clock ) ( at midnight )
celebrations at Christmas ( at Easter )
fixed phrases (at the same time )

For - period of time ( for three weeks )

From the posts I've read so far, it sounds like some confusion persists on
the use of for and at when referring to time. Is "schedule(d)" really a special case? Do other special cases exist? Is "at" really never appropriate when coupled with "scheduled" and referencing a specific time?

The only way I could agree that the use of for does come in handy would be in a case such as " The book signing is scheduled for 8PM at Waldenbooks."
Mostly because using double "at" would sound awkward.

Any thought's appreciated, links to information would be great too.

[Torsten]

If you google the phrase "scheduled for" you get more than 24 million results most of which refer to the time an event is scheduled for. "Scheduled for" refers to an event that happens in the future. You might say 'we were scheduling the meeting at precisely 4pm' which would mean that at 4pm you were in the process of scheduling a meeting. This doesn't say when the meeting itself was going to take place though.

You can say 'scheduled at' when you refer to a location as in your example so you can ask 'where is the meeting scheduled at?' and 'when is the meeting scheduled for'?
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TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary