Prepositions
Basic Prepositions: Time and Place - at, in, on and to
A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how something is situated in relationship to something else. Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases can be made up of a million different words, but they tend to be built the same: a preposition followed by a determiner and an adjective or two, followed by a pronoun or noun (called the object of the preposition). This whole phrase, in turn, takes on a modifying role, acting as an adjective or an adverb, locating something in time and space, modifying a noun, or telling when or where or under what conditions something happened.
Prepositions of Time: at, on, and in
We use at to designate specific times
The train is due at 12:15 p.m.
We use on to designate days and dates.
My brother is coming on Monday.
We're having a party on the Fourth of July.
We use in for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a year.
She likes to jog in the morning.
It's too cold in winter to run outside.
He started the job in 1971.
He's going to quit in August.
Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in
We use at for specific addresses.
Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Roadin Durham. We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.
Her house is on Boretz Road and we use in for the names of land- areas (towns, counties, states, countries, and continents).
She lives in Durham.
Durham is in Windham County.
Windham County is in Connecticut.
Prepositions of Location: in, at, and on
and No Preposition |
IN
(the) bed*
the bedroom
the car
(the) class*
the library*
school* | AT
class*
home
the library*
the office
school*
work | ON
the bed*
the ceiling
the floor
the horse
the plane
the train | NO PREPOSITION
downstairs
downtown
inside
outside
upstairs
uptown |
|
Prepositions of Movement: to and No Preposition
We use to in order to express movement toward a place.
They were driving to work together.
She's going to the dentist's office this morning.
Toward and towards are also helpful prepositions to express movement.
These are simply variant spellings of the same word; use whichever sounds better to you.
We're moving toward the light.
This is a big step towards the project's completion. With the words home, downtown, uptown, inside, outside, downstairs, upstairs, we use no preposition.
Grandma went upstairs
Grandpa went home.
They both went outside.
Prepositions of Time: for and since
We use for when we measure time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years).
He held his breath for seven minutes.
She's lived there for seven years.
The British and Irish have been quarreling for seven centuries.
We use since with a specific date or time.
He's worked here since 1970.
She's been sitting in the waiting room since two-thirty.
Prepositions with Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs.
Prepositions are sometimes so firmly wedded to other words that they have practically become one word. (In fact, in other languages, such as German, they would have become one word.) This occurs in three categories: nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
NOUNS and PREPOSITIONS |
approval of
awareness of
belief in
concern for
confusion about
desire for | fondness for
grasp of
hatred of
hope for
interest in
love of | need for
participation in
reason for
respect for
success in
understanding of |
ADJECTIVES and PREPOSITIONS |
afraid of
angry at
aware of
capable of
careless about
familiar with | fond of
happy about
interested in
jealous of
made of
married to | proud of
similar to
sorry for
sure of
tired of
worried about |
VERBS and PREPOSITIONS |
apologize for
ask about
ask for
belong to
bring up
care for
find out | give up
grow up
look for
look forward to
look up
make up
pay for | prepare for
study for
talk about
think about
trust in
work for
worry about |
A combination of verb and preposition is called a phrasal verb. The word that is joined to the verb is then called a particle. Please refer to the brief section we have prepared on phrasal verbs for an explanation.
