10.4 Prepositions: movement

Prepositions of movement are used to show the direction somebody or something is moving to, towards, from, out of, etc.

 

I am afraid to walk into the forest.

 

People normally come in through the door.

 

There are many prepositions of movement with different meanings:

 

across → We have to walk across the bridge.

 

along → People are marching along the street, celebrating their national holiday.

 

between → Look! The mouse ran between two chairs!    

 

by → You will pass by some ancient buildings during your excursion

 

down → Tom fell down the hill.

 

from → I’ll return from my trip tomorrow afternoon.

 

in → Please, come in!

 

off → What are you doing on the tree? Get off immediately!

 

on → We will climb on that mountain tomorrow.

 

onto → We got onto the ship by the ramp.

 

through → The ball slipped through the goalkeeper’s legs.

 

out of → A jolly crowd walked out of the bar.

 

over → The plane flew over a mountain range.

 

past → We will go past several beautiful buildings.

 

round/around → It will take about 3 hours to go around the city center.

 

towards → The boat moves slowly towards the pier.

 

to → This bus goes to Italy.

 

under → Let’s hide under those beautiful apple trees.

 

up → You should go up the main street to get to the central square.

 

Use ‘to’ after the verbs of movement —  ‘go’, ‘walk’, ‘come’, ‘fly’, ‘travel’:

 

Sandy is travelling to Brazil.

 

Let’s go to the cinema.

 

But, don’t use to’ after ‘visit’ and ‘arrive’. Use ‘arrive at’ with regular places and ‘arrive in’ with very big places, like cities and countries:

 

Yesterday I visited my aunt (NOT visited to my aunt).

 

Please check in, when you arrive at the hotel (NOT arrive to the hotel).

 

The famous singer arrived in Amsterdam (NOT arrived to Amsterdam).

 

Use ‘by’ to show how you move or travel:

 

– We can go there by train or by car.

 

– It is faster by plane.