Prepositions
A word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause is termed a Preposition. Prepositions show direction, location, or time, or introduce an object. They are usually followed by an object—a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun.
There are hardly any rules for when to use which preposition. The only way to learn prepositions is by looking them up in a dictionary, reading a lot of English books and learning useful phrases by heart. Even advanced learners of English find prepositions difficult.
Read this picture and learn how to use prepositions.
Read these sentences and follow the pictures.
The light is over the table. There are some flowers in the vase. The cup is near the vase. The glass is in front of the box. The bottle is behind the box. The knife is by the box. The pen is on the box. The chair is at the table. The dog is under the table. The picture is on the wall between the door and the window. The clock is over the door. The woman is at the door. The little girl is leaning against the woman. The man is coming into the house. The cat is going out of the house.
The boy is coming down the steps. The girl is going up the steps. The baby is playing with a toy car. There is an old man at the bus stop. A boy is running along the road. A girl is walking across the road. The old woman is looking at the road through the window.
The man is leaning against the tree with a cigarette between his lips and looking at the posters put up on the tree in front of him.
A List of English Prepositions
about, above, across, after, against, along, alongside, amid, among, amongst, around, aside, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but, by, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, minus, near, nearby, next, of, off, on, onto, opposite, outside, over, past, per, plus, round, since, through, throughout, till, to, toward, towards, under, underneath, unlike, until, unto, up, upon, versus, via, with, within, without, worth
Multiple words
Two words
according to, adjacent to, ahead of, apart from, as for, as of, as per, as regards, aside from, back to, because of, close to, due to, except for, far from, inside of, instead of, left of, near to, next to, opposite of, opposite to, out from, out of, outside of, owing to, prior to, pursuant to, regardless of, right of, subsequent to, thanks to, up to,
Three words
as opposed to
Preposition + (article) + noun + preposition
at the behest of, by means of, by virtue of, for the sake of, by, in addition to, in case of, in front of, in lieu of, in order to, in place of, in point of, in spite of, on account of, on behalf of, on top of, with regard to, with respect to, with a view to
