Prepositions - English Grammar

It is difficult to learn prepositions correctly. Most of them have several different functions; for instance, the dictionary lists eighteen main uses of the preposition at. At the same time, different prepositions can have very similar uses (in the morning, on Monday, at night), so that it is easy to make mistakes. Many nouns, verbs and adjectives are used with particular prepositions: we saycongratulations on, arrive at, angry with somebody, on a bus. There are not many rules to help you choose correctly in these cases, so you have to learn each expression separately. There are also problems connected with the position of prepositions in sentences.
What is a preposition?
A preposition is a word which shows the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and another word in the sentence.Prepositions are usually (but not always) placed before the noun or pronoun they govern.
 He was beside himself.
 He left before dinner.
A preposition can be followed by a noun, a pronoun, a proper noun, gerund or a noun phrase:
 Noun: Are you afraid of spiders?
 Proper Noun: I was born in January.
 Personal pronoun: She made a cake for him.
 Gerund: I look forward to hearing fromyou.
 Noun Phrase: Don’t ask me for another drink.
When a preposition is followed by a verb, the verb must take the gerund form, which means adding ‘–ing’ as a suffix.
 I look forward to seeing you.
 Thanks for looking after this matter.
Roughly, there are around 150 prepositions in English. This may seem like a small number when compared to the amount of verbs and nouns in English; however,prepositions play a very important part in the English language and are considered one of the most difficult topics for native and non-native speakers.
Prepositions can be simple or complex.
Simple prepositions consist of a single word, such as in, of, at, and to.
Complex prepositions consist of two- or three-word combinations acting as a single unit. Here are some examples:
accordingto
along with
apart from
because of
contrary to due to
except for
instead of
prior to
regardless of
We will focus on the following prepositions:
On In At

Above Below Over Under Beneath Underneath

Made from Made with Made out of

Prepositions Of Time
The prepositions in, at and on are used to express time.
Exact times
We use at to give the time of an event, anappointment.
 We’ve got to get up at six tomorrow.
 I’ll meet you outside at a quarter to eight
In informal English, at is usually dropped in the expression (At) what time...? and in other expressions of time when they come at the beginning of a sentence.
 What time do you usually start working?
 “When shall we come in?” – “Eight o’clock.”
Parts of the day
The most common expressionsare in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at night.
 It always takes me ages to wake up in the morning.
 I work best at night.
If we say which morning, afternoon, etc we are thinking of, or if we describe the morning, afternoon, etc, on is used instead of in.
 See you on Monday morning.
 On a cold afternoon in January, I was...
 On that particular evening, there was astrange excitement in the air.
 I don’t like to see people on the nights when I’ve been working late.
Days
On is used to talk about particular days (and also in expressions like on Monday morning, on Tuesday afternoon).
 Come back on Wednesday.
 We’re giving him a surprise party on his birthday.

On can be dropped (particularly in American English) before the names of the day of the week. I’m seeing her (on) Sunday morning.

Weekends and public holidays

At is used to talk about the whole of the public holidays at Christmas, New Year, Easter, and Thanksgiving (US).
 Are you going away at Easter?

But on is used to refer to one day of the holidays (e.g. on Easter Monday)
British people say at the weekend; Americans say on the weekend.
Longer periods
In is used when...