Preposition
Prepositions are always called the little monsters of English, especially for second language learners as there
are no obvious rules to learn them.
So, what is a preposition?
A preposition is a word,
or, in some instance, a word group that relates
one sentence element (e.g. an adjective) to
another sentence element (e.g. a noun).
e.g. The little prince was very fond of sunsets. (Preposition ˉofˇ
relates the adjective ˉfondˇ to the noun ˉsunsetsˇ.
Prepositions are especially difficult for Chinese learners,
as we do not need them to relate sentence elements together. For instance,
Sometimes, prepositions
will appear together with a noun, a verb or an adjective. In that case,
we call them prepositional phrases, e.g. at
dawn, wait for, fond of.
The correct use of prepositions is usually the
indicator of good mastery of English. Then what can we do to improve our use of
prepositions?
The ways to improve oneˇs use of prepositions include:
Do more exercises
Read more books and pay attention to the
prepositions or prepositional phrases.
Recite as many prepositional phrases as
possible.
Letˇs see how propositions are used in
the story of the Little Prince. Note the shaded words.
Oh, little
prince! Bit
by bit I came to understand
the
secrets of your sad little life... For
a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet
pleasure of looking at the sunset. I
learned that new detail on the morning of
the fourth day, when you said to me:
"I am very fond of
sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset now."
"But we must wait," I
said.
"Wait? For
what?"
"For the sunset. We must
wait until
it is time."
At first you seemed to be very much
surprised. And then you laughed to yourself. You
said to
me:
"I am always thinking that I am
at home!"
Just so. Everybody
knows that when it is
If you could fly to
"One day," you said to
me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!"
And a little later you added:
"You know-- one loves the
sunset, when one is so sad..."
"Were you so sad, then?" I
asked, "on the day of
the forty-four sunsets?"
But the little prince made no reply.
|
Types of Prepositions |
Examples for the passage |
|
Preposition
of Time |
for, on, until,
in, from, |
|
Preposition
of Place |
in,
over, on, |
|
Prepositional
Noun Phrase |
bit
by bit, the secret of your sad little life, the quiet pleasure of look at,
the morning of the fourth day, at first, at home, the day of the forty-four
sunsets |
|
Prepositional
Verb Phrase |
come
to, look at, wait for, go straight into, |
|
Prepositional
Adjective Phrase |
fond
of, far away, |
|
Other
Prepositions |
to,
for, |
From the table, you can see
that some of the prepositions like ˉonˇ, ˉinˇ can be used as both prepositions
of time and prepositions of place! Yes, in fact, most of the prepositions can
be used in different places, with nouns, verbs or adjectives.
Today, we are
going to focus on the prepositions of place and prepositions of time.
Day 1: Prepositions of Place and
Preposition of Time
Example:
1. The ring is in the
box.
2. My books are on the desk.
3. We jumped into the pool.
4. She hid herself under the
bed.
5. She stands beside me.
6. He sits next to me.
7. We put her jacket behind the cupboard.
8.
9. His result is above average.
10. He jumped over the
hurdle with ease.
11.
She is at the corner of the
room.
At is used for a point of
time.
In is used for a period of
time.
On is used for a day.
Example: 1. He leaves home at
2.
He leaves home in the morning.
3.
He leaves home on Mondays./He left on
Monday morning.
Other ¨at〃 phrases:
at the
same time
at
present
at the
moment
at
lunchtime
at
night/midnight
at the
weekend/at week-ends
at first,
at last
at
dawn/daybreak/sunrise/noon/dusk/sunset
at the
age of
Other ¨on〃 phrases:
on the
evening of October 28
on oneˇs
birthday
on this
occasion
on that
day
on oneˇs
arrival/departure
on a
cold, wet day
on +
gerund (e.g. on hearing the death of her father, she fainted.)
Other ¨in〃 phrases:
in the
morning/afternoon/evening
in the
middle of the night/in the night
in modern
times
in oneˇs
time
in onesˇ
day
in oneˇs
absence
in the
presence of someone
in the
past
in those
days
in (the)
future
In is also used to indicate after a period
of time, e.g.
We do not use any prepositions before next,
last, this, every, all, each, some, any and none.
E.g. Let
us meet again next Saturday.
I
go swimming every Monday.
We use other
prepositions of time according to their meanings, e.g