Prepositions are a class of words that indicate relationships between nouns, pronouns and other words in a sentence.
Most often they come before a noun. Prepositions never change their form,
regardless of the case, gender etc. of the word they are referring to.Prepositions are classified as simple or compound.
Simple prepositions are single word prepositions - across, after, at, before, between, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to under, with and without are all single word prepositions.
For example:
The book is on the table.
Compound prepositions are more than one word - in between and because of are prepositions made up of two words - in front of, on behalf of - are prepositions made up of three words.
For example:
The book is in between War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings.
The book is in front of the clock.
Prepositions of Movement
Prepositions can be used to show movement.
For example:
to, through, across
We use to in order to show movement with the aim of a specific destination.
For example:
I moved to Germany in 1998.
He's gone to the shops.
We use through to show movement from one side of an enclosed space to the other.
For example
The train went through the tunnel.
We use across to show movement from one side of a surface or line to another.
For example:
She swam across the river.
Prepositions of Place
Prepositions can be used to show where something is located.
The prepositions at, on, and in etc. are used to refer to the place or location of something.
We use at to show a specific place or position.
For example:
Someone is at the door.
They are waiting at the bus stop.
I used to live at 51 Portland Street.
We use on to show position on a horizontal or vertical surface.
For example:
The cat sat on the mat.
The satellite dish is on the roof.
We also use on to show position on streets, roads, etc.
For example:
I used to live on Portland Street.
We use in to show that something is enclosed or surrounded. For example:
The dog is in the garden.
She is in a taxi.
Put it in the box.
We also use in to show position within land-areas (towns, counties, states, countries, and continents). For example:
I used to live in Nottingham.
More prepositions of place
Exercise
Look at the drawings and fill in the missing prepositions in the sentences below. Use each of the following once only.
In, on, next to, behind, through, in front, opposite, over, inside, under, outside, between
