Prepositions: overview

 

Prepositions are words that express place, time, reason and other logical relationships between different parts of the sentence.

 

Prepositions are always followed by a noun or pronoun.

 

Prepositions of Place

• The ball is on the box.
• The ball is between the box and the bear.
• The ball is behind the box.
• The ball is in front of the box.
• The ball is under the box.
• The ball is next to the box.
• The ball is in the box.
• The ball is near the box.

 

Prepositions of Time

 

at +	9.00 / 10.30 / 7.45
	night
	the weekend (UK)

• I start work at 9.00 every day.
• He doesn’t usually go out at night.
• She sometimes works at the weekend.

 

on +	Monday / Thursday / Sunday
	Friday afternoon / Tuesday morning / Saturday nights
	November 27th / June 2nd / May 1st
	the weekend (US)

• I’m meeting Tom on Monday.
• I don’t usually work on Friday afternoon.
• My birthday is on November 27th.

 

in +	the morning / the afternoon / the evening
	July / September / January
	2012 / 1998 / 2001
	winter / spring / summer / autumn (UK) or fall (US)

• He usually watches TV in the evening.
• They sometimes go on holiday in July.
• We bought this house in 2012.
• It’s always cold here in winter.

 

Note: We always exchange presents at Christmas. We always exchange presents on Christmas Day. He likes going out at New Year. He likes going out on New Year’s Eve.

 

We don’t use a preposition with ‘last’ / ‘this’ / ‘next‘:

• I went to Paris last year.

(NOT: I went to Paris on last year.)

• I want to go to London this year.
• I’m going to visit Barcelona next year.

 

Adjectives with Prepositions

 

These are some useful combinations:

• I’m interested in cooking.
• He’s very good at playing tennis.
• Carrots are good for you.
• My sister is afraid of spiders.
• Paris is famous for the Eiffel Tower.
• We’re worried about the English test.