Shirley Taylor




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‘On’ or ‘At’?

Dear Shirley: I enjoy using your Model Business book, and reading your newsletter. It helps me a lot in my work. But I hope you can help me with this sentence. I'm confused between which to use.

Please call me at 12345678 or
Please call me on 121345678

Your A - Z of Bloopers under letter C indicates at while your Model Business Letters book indicates on. And what I learned from my Business English class was that on is standard English while at is Singlish.


Shirley Says: Thanks for your kind comments about my book.

Actually both 'on' and 'at' are correct. I think the confusion has arisen because in the UK we tend to say 'on', so that's why you'll see this in my book 'Model Business Letters, E-mails and Other Business Documents. In the USA, they tend to use the word 'at'. While I wouldn't say this is particularly 'Singlish', it is true to say that in Singapore we are more fond of using 'at', which is why I get confused from time to time! Sorry about this.

Both would be fine, so please use whichever one you are more comfortable with, but do be consistent. You may use:

Please call me on xxxxxxxx.
Please call me at xxxxxxxx.

I hope this helps.


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