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1 Adjectives 5 Prepositions
2 Adverbs
3 Nouns 5.1 Prepositions of place
4 Verbs
You can use the prepositions below to talk about where somebody or something is.
5 Prepositions
Preposition Example
at What time did you arrive at the station?
on I left the letter on your desk this morning.
over There was a lamp hanging over the table.
above There was a sign above the entrance.
in, inside OK, let’s see what’s in/inside that box.
outside The red car parked outside our house is my brother’s.
under The cat was hiding under the bed.
below Mr Gower’s office is directly below mine.
near We’d like to sit near the window, please.
next to The little girl sitting next to Jane is her daughter.
beside Who’s that standing beside Keith?
by She’s just bought a beautiful house by the river.
in front of The bus stops right in front of my school.
behind She turned around to look at Eve, who was standing behind her.
opposite There’s a supermarket opposite our house.
among The teacher was standing among a crowd of children.
between Ella sat down between Jo and Kevin.

5.2 Prepositions of movement

You can use the following prepositions to talk about the direction in which somebody or
something is moving.

Preposition Example
up Come on, let’s walk up that hill.
down Anna ran down the stairs.
onto The musicians walked onto the stage.
into He got into his car and drove away.
out of I got out of bed and ran downstairs.
from What time did you get home from work?
to Could you drive me to the airport tomorrow?
towards She stood up and walked towards me.
over The dog jumped over the fence.
round The earth moves round the sun.
along They went for a walk along the river.
across He swam across the river.
off She fell off her bike and hurt her knee.
past Tim walked right past me and didn’t even say hello.
through You’ll have to drive through the tunnel to get there.

5.3 Prepositions of time

You can use the following prepositions to talk about when something happens or to refer to the
length of time that something lasts.

PrepositionUse/Meaning Examples
 with clock times and points or periods of at nine o’clock, at midnight, at the
at
time beginning/end, at the weekend, at night
with parts of the day, months, years, in the morning, in July, in 2014, in the
in
seasons, centuries winter, in the last century
on Monday, on my birthday, on 5 January,
on with days or dates
on Christmas Day
We’ll need the report by the end of the
by to mean ‘no later than’
week.
before to mean ‘earlier than something’ I always have a shower before breakfast.
after to mean ‘later than something’ Let’s meet here after the show.
to mean ‘from a time in the past until a
since I’ve known Kat since 2010.
later time or until now’
for to show how long an action continues for We’ve been waiting here for three hours!
to mean ‘all through a period of time’, or I worked in a hotel during the summer. 
Her
during
‘at some point in a period of time’ husband died during the war.
until/till to mean ‘up to’ (the time mentioned) Let’s wait here until she comes back.
past to mean ‘later than a particular time’ It was past midnight when she phoned me.
She had to work through the night to finish
through to mean ‘later than a particular time’
her project.

5.4 Prepositions before particular words

Some prepositions are often used before particular words to form fixed expressions. There are a
lot of preposition + noun combinations in English, and they are very common in both written and
formal English. Here are some examples:

at at first, at last, at least, at once, at present, at the moment, at times

by by accident, by chance, by far, by heart, by mistake
for for a while, for ages, for a change
from from memory, from time to time, from bad to worse, from now on
in in a hurry, in advance, in cash, in general, in other words, in time, in stock
on on average, on business, on duty, on foot, on purpose, on the whole, on time
out of out of breath, out of control, out of fashion, out of order, out of stock, out of the way
under under control, under discussion, under pressure, under way

5.5 Prepositions after particular words

You have to use particular prepositions after some adjectives, verbs and nouns. For adjectives
and nouns, see 1.6 and 3.4 above. Here are some examples of verb + preposition combinations:

apologize to I really think you should apologize to your father.

listen to Listen carefully to the instructions or you won’t know what to do.
reply to She hasn’t reply to my email yet.
stare at You shouldn’t stare at people. It’s rude.
worry about Don’t worry about me. I’m fine

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