Introduction

Prepositions describe a relationship between other words in a sentence. They locate objects in time and space, describe location or movement and show how something is situated in relationship to something else. It can be difficult to define an individual preposition: most English prepositions have several different functions (e.g. "at" or "for") and also different prepositions can have similar uses (e.g. in the morning/at night, by car/on foot).

Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in prepositional phrases, which consist of a preposition followed by a determiner, an adjective and finally a pronoun or noun (called the object of the preposition). This whole phrase then acts as an adjective or adverb, telling when or where, or under what conditions, or in what field, something happened.

Below are examples of the major categories of preposition, with links to websites that give you more information. There are also links to quizzes and crosswords for self checking and practice.

This website gives detailed information on preposition usage. http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm (Accessed 7 February 2003)

1. Prepositions of Time: at, on, in, for and since

We use at to indicate specific times.

We use on to indicate days and dates.

We use in for non-specific times during a day, a month, a season, a year or an event.

We use for when we measure time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years).

We use since with a specific date or time (with the present perfect tense).

This website gives short explanations and examples of prepositions of time, place, and those used to introduce objects (at, in, on, since, for, during, within; at, of, for, about etc)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep4.html
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

2. Prepositions of Place or Location: at, on, and in

We use at for specific addresses.

We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.

We use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties, states, countries, and continents).

This website gives explanations, with graphics, of prepositions of location or place (at,in,on)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep2.html
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

3. Prepositions of Movement or Direction: to, into, onto, toward etc

We use to in order to express movement towards a place.

Toward(s) is also a helpful preposition to express movement.

This website gives explanations, with graphics, of prepositions of direction (to, into, onto).
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep.html
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

4. Prepositions of spatial relationships: above, before, across, through, around

These prepositions describe how one object relates to another

This website gives explanations, with graphics, of prepositions describing spatial relationships (above, below, around, behind, through etc)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep3.html
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

5. Idiomatic Expressions with Prepositions

Idiomatic expressions use a variety of prepositions, depending on the object following; the context and the intended meaning.

Click here for a short 10-question interactive quiz

Links and quizzes:

This website gives a list of common prepositions and examples of prepositional phrases and prepositions at the end of a sentence

http://www.unlv.edu/Colleges/Liberal_Arts/English/Writing_Center/Prepositions.htm
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

These web pages give interactive quizzes for self-checking and practice.

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/preposition_quiz1.htm
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

http://a4esl.org/q/h/0101/es-prepositions.html
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

http://a4esl.org/q/h/fb-bd-preposition.html
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

These web pages give preposition crosswords, with hints and answers.

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/cross/cross_prep.htm
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/cross/cross_prep2.htm
(Accessed 7 February 2003)

http://iteslj.org/cw/1/vm-prep.htm
(Accessed 7 February 2003)