Learn English – Upon their visit or on their visit

differenceprepositionstimeword-choice

In the report, the police have said the menu was neither displayed nor shared with the police by the canteen Staff upon their visit

1-upon
2-on

I read this sentence from a Indian news paper "the Hindu" and I am confused whether to use on or upon, in sentence they used "upon" as shown above in sentence.

Best Answer

The subtle difference is that upon denotes moment in time whereas on denotes both moment in time and during.

We can use "on" to mean "at a moment in time"

On our arrival... (the moment of our arrival)

or "during"

On our journey...

Locative uses aside, we use "upon" nowadays mainly to refer to moments in time

upon our arrival...

we set out upon our journey

upon seeing it for the first time...

upon being informed that

not to duration:

archaism We met him while we were upon our journey.