Arrive in, at or to?

One of the typical mistakes my students make is using the preposition "to" with the verb "arrive".

For example: *We arrived to London.

The preposition “to” can never follow the verb “arrive”, because it is a preposition of movement and the verb is not. Instead of “to”, we can use “at” or “in”, but, when should we use one or the other? The answer is easy:

• We use “at” when we get to a small place such as an airport, station or village.

Ex.: The children arrived at school quite late.

• We use “in” when we get to a large place such as a country or a city.

Ex.: The Vikings arrived in Britain in the 8^th century.

Sometimes it's not so easy and you can find examples like:

They arrived at Cardiff

Being Cardiff a big town, "in" should have been used, but "at" is correct because we actually mean arrive at Cardiff station or airport.

Photo: Cardiff Bay, by Ian Britton