Thread: в and на as prepositions with place

Is there any general way of knowing which preposition to use?
Similar situations require different prepositions:

работаю в учреждении
работаю на телеграфе

учусь в десятом классе
учусь на первом курсе

был в театре
был на спектакле

был в тылу
был на фронте

Originally Posted by sperk

Is there any general way of knowing which preposition to use?
Similar situations require different prepositions:

работаю в учреждении
работаю на телеграфе

учусь в десятом классе
учусь на первом курсе

был в театре
был на спектакле

был в тылу
был на фронте

]
The title of this thread is "...as prepositions with place". This is where you are going wrong. Курс, спекталь aren't places.

в + prep = in (a specific enclosed space)
в школе - at school ( a school is a building)
в театре - at the theatre (a theatre is a building)

Events - на + prep.

на войне - war (war is an event, not a place)
на фронте - at the fronе (the front is not an enclosed space and is sort of an event, anyway.)
на спектале - at the show (a show is an event, not a place)
на фестивале - at the festival (again, an event)

на стадионе
на почте
а даже на кухне!

You have to memorize the list of nouns that take на. They are often large places without defined edges, but as you can see from the above, not always.