All About English Prepositions

Prepositions are a class of word that is used to establish relationships between different elements of a sentence. They often indicate location, direction, time, or the relationship between nouns, pronouns, and other parts of a sentence. Prepositions are typically followed by a noun or pronoun, forming a prepositional phrase.

Prepositions are one of a variety of word classes or what are called ‘parts of speech’, which you can learn more about by clicking on this article.

There are three main classes of preposition, which are detailed below.

Mastering prepositions can seem a daunting task; that is why I have pictured a dragon slayer here!

These first two categories are fairly logical. The third is the one that causes many problems and separates the good from the brilliant, and frequently it is a preposition amiss that betrays an otherwise flawless English student.

Temporal prepositions

The word ‘temporal’ means ‘relating to time’. So, these prepositions relate to the time, day, date, month or season that something occurs. They tell us the relative ‘position’ of something in time. They are marked below in bold and, while these prepositions are somewhat random as to their application, they are straightforward to learn because once you know which one applies to which situation there are no surprises:

Clock time or occasions:

• I met him at 10 o’clock
• I will see you at half past eight
• We had a great time at Christmas
• See you at the weekend

Period of the day:

• See you in the morning
• I’ll meet you in the afternoon
• It happened in the evening

Day of the week:

• I will see you on Monday
• I met him on a Saturday
• The concert is on Sunday

Date of the month:

• See you on the 1st June
• My birthday is on the 9th February
• The concert is on the 8th December

Month:

• I saw you in June
• My birthday is in July
• The concert is in November
• It sometimes snows in April

Season:

• I’ll see you in the summer
• It happened in the winter
• It is always beautiful in autumn
• In spring, the flowers begin to bloom

Other time related prepositions:

• The teacher said I must do my homework by tomorrow (no later)
• I hope to get there by 6 o’clock (I won’t be later than 6, but perhaps earlier)
• By the time you get this message, I will have arrived

• I don’t have to start this project until next week (not before next week)
• I won’t get home until it is dark (not before dark)
• I will keep running until I fall down
• Take care of yourself until we meet again

During, since, before and after are also prepositions of time.

Spatial prepositions

The word ‘spatial’ means ‘relating to or occupying space’. So these prepositions relate to the space or place in which something occurs. These, too, are straightforward to learn because they can be learnt according to their dictionary definitions with very few exceptions:

In:

• The book is in the bag
• There is water in the glass
• I am in the livingroom

On:

• The cat is sitting on the table
• The computer is on my desk

At: (a location that one is not in or on)

• I’ll meet you at the park
• I’ll see you at work
• I am waiting at the bus stop

Under:

• The floor is under my feet
• The river flows under the bridge

Over:

• The bird flew over my head

Above:

• The ceiling is above my head
• Her intelligence is above average

Below:

• Her grades are below average
• The second floor is below the fourth

Next to/Beside/By:

• The twin beds are next to each other
• My neighbour lives in the house beside mine
• I walked by the river
• There is a pub by the roadside

Between:

• The sandwich filling goes between two slices of bread
• Your torso is between your arms
• Your eyes are between your ears

Behind:

• Don’t fall behind the group (keep up)
• Your bottom is behind your body
• The frightened child stands behind her mother

(In) front of:

• The brave girl went to the front of the class
• The angry dog stood in front of its owner

Near, along, around, across, through, into, out of, towards, away from, onto, off, up, down, opposite, to the left of, and with are all further examples of spatial prepositions. They tell us the ‘position’ of something in space.

Spatial prepositions also include prepositions of direction or movement: to, from, over, under, along, around, across, through, into, out of, towards, away from, onto, off, up, and down are all examples of prepositions that describe a the movement of something rather than the fixed location of something.

Motion is frequently expressed by ‘to’:

• I went to school
• I went to the park
• Run to the shop
• Move to the left
• Turn to the right
• Drive to the countryside

The opposite motion of ‘to’ is ‘from’:

• I came home from school
• We drove back from the countryside
• He comes from France

Dependent prepositions

Examples of dependent prepositions are by, of, for and with. These are often not logical and frequently need to be learnt as collocations. That is, they need to be learnt as part of an expression: One doesn’t listen music, but listens to it.

However, certain words that are often confused, such as ‘with’ and ‘for’ and ‘by’ do also have specific meanings of their own. Studying their dictionary definitions and examples can be very helpful, but always bear in mind that most dependent prepositions have evolved beyond logic.

Here are some examples of dependent preposition phrases. Notice that the prepositions in these noun phrases are not always true to their dictionary definitions, but are fixed collocations with the word that precedes them.

• A response to something
• A solution to
• A reaction to
• An obsession with
• A knowledge of
• A sympathy for
• A desire for
• A cure for
• A fear of
• A belief in
• A decrease in
• An attack on
• An emphasis on
• A problem with
• A story about
• A difference between
• Care about
• Care for
• Approve of
• Invest in
• Excel at
• Comment on
• Depend on
• Benefit from
• Decide against

Sometimes multiple prepositions can be used for the same expression. Occasionally this has to do with American and British English differences:

• I was delighted with the results
• I was delighted by the results

There are a large number of prepositions in English and many prepositions in English serve multiple purposes, some prepositions are simply compound prepositions, such as ‘because of’, ‘out of’, ‘to the left of’ and ‘near to’. Others are those little prepositions we use after verbs known collectively as ‘phrasal verbs‘. Phrasal verbs number in their thousands in the English language.

Many prepositions have little meaning in themselves but work to change the meaning of the words around them:

• talk to
• talk about
• talk with
• talk at
• get on with
• get by
• get around
• go in
• go out
• go up
• go down
• go for
• go with
• go by

Many phrasal verbs have no literal meaning in themselves. Some examples of such phrasal verbs are,

• come up with (an idea)
• come down with (a cold)
• I get up in the morning
• You turned up late
• Looking up directions
• Showing off your car
• Telling off your child

For those who would like to study prepositions in greater depth, the following comprehensive book teaches the subtle distinctions between prepositions, prepositional phrases, compound prepositions, participial preposition phrases, and extensive examples of phrasal verbs and adjective/preposition collocations. The book includes full lists of the various types of prepositions and many advanced exercises to practise them. It also teaches extensively about the different ways prepositions are used and answers every conceivable question about them.

The Complete Guide to Mastering English Prepositions: Answers to all your preposition questions. With hundreds of examples and practice exercises.

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Conclusion

These are just a few examples, and there are many more prepositions in the English language. It’s important to note that prepositions can also be used in idiomatic expressions or phrasal verbs, where their meaning may not be literal or predictable based on their individual words.

Understanding prepositions and their usage is crucial for constructing clear and grammatically correct sentences in English. Choosing the wrong preposition can result in a slightly or completely different meaning of an entire sentence, which naturally leads to misunderstandings!

Please go to the section below for practice exercises. Or, for a more in depth look at some of the more commonly used and frequently confused prepositions, see the following articles on individual prepositions:

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘Along’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘At’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘By’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘During’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘For’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘From’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘In’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘Of‘

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘On‘

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘To’

The Meaning and Use of the Preposition ‘With’

If you have any questions, requests or comments, please do enter them below.

Exercises to practise

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burton-Roberts, Noel. Analysing Sentences: An Introduction to English Syntax, 4^th edn (Routledge, 2016)

Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 3rd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

Dreyer, Benjamin. Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style (Penguin Random House, 2020)

Hewings, Martin, and others. Cambridge English Grammar and Vocabulary for Advanced (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Hickey, Raymond. Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Huddleston, Rodney, and others. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

Parrott, Martin. Grammar for English Language Teachers, 2nd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Quirk, Randolph, and others. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, reprint edn (Pearson, 2011)

Seely, John. Oxford A – Z of Grammar & Punctuation (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Yates Ph.D, Jean. Prepositions, 3rd edn (Kaplan, Barron’s Education, 2020)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition