About ARRIVING IN, AT or IN
One of the typical mistakes 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 8th 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.
(Thanks to Cristina Salgarello)