How to Use English Prepositions Correctly in Real Situations [525]

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In this episode, you’ll learn how English prepositions are used in real situations.

We look at common problem areas such as:

• on, at, and in
• into vs onto
• until vs by

These small words cause many common mistakes, even at intermediate and advanced levels.

I explain the differences clearly, show how they work in context, and help you avoid errors that make your English sound unnatural or confusing.

This lesson will help you speak and write more accurately, especially in professional communication and everyday conversations.

Ideal for intermediate and upper-intermediate learners who want stronger, more precise English.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. So anything that you need, you know where to contact me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com. I'm always very, very happy to hear from you. Okay, so as I said, this is an advanced English lesson and we're looking in particular at prepositions. Now, the first part of this might be a little easy for you, those of you who are considered to be advanced, but perhaps it's no harm to go through it anyway so that you can get a little bit of a warm-up and a little bit of a revision on it. And for any of you who are intermediate or below, well, this is exactly the sort of introduction that you want to prepositions. Now, prepositions are often just very small, short words like in, at, on, by, for, etc. But they cause lots and lots of problems. When do I use them? When do I not? When do I use in, on or at? So hopefully this will give you some help, some indication and guidance as to when and how to use them correctly. Okay, so we're going to start off with some light touch. Okay, so the first three prepositions we're going to look at are at, on and in. At, on and in. And here we're going to start with prepositions about time because it's really, really important. If we're talking about days in the week, months in the year, years in the decade, dates, whatever it might be, then prepositions are used all the time. So prepositions of time. First preposition, at. We use at before exact times. I'll meet you at six o'clock. I'll meet you at four o'clock. The train arrives at two o'clock. So it's all about exact times. So we can use about exact times, special holiday periods, or even night and the weekend. Okay, so let me give you a few examples. The show starts at four o'clock, exact time. I usually visit my family at Christmas. Now it's at Christmas time, so later on we'll give you a little bit of a different approach when we're talking about the actual day, but at Christmas time, I usually visit my family at Christmas time or indeed at Easter time or at Easter. You shouldn't leave your TV on at night. It's dangerous. You shouldn't leave your TV on at night. What are you going to do at the weekend? What are you going to do at the weekend? Now, sometimes in American English, they say, what are you going to do on the weekend? So you can hear both, depending whether British English or American English. Usually we use at. What are you going to do at the weekend? Or indeed later on over the weekend, but that means from the beginning, say late on a Friday right through to Monday morning over the weekend. But to avoid confusion, we will stick to at the weekend. So when we're talking about prepositions of time with the preposition at, we use at before the exact times. We use at when we're talking about special holiday periods. And we talk about, we use at when we talk about night and the weekend. Okay, so just give you those examples once more. The show starts at four o'clock. I usually visit my family at Christmas, at Easter. You shouldn't leave your TV on at night. What are you going to do at the weekend? Okay, now let's look at the preposition on. Again, we're still talking about prepositions of time, remember, okay? So here we're talking about the preposition on. And we use on before particular days or dates and when we refer to part of a particular day as well. So days and dates and parts of particular days. So again, let me give you some examples. Sarah's birthday is on the 15th of April. On the 15th of April. I'll see you or I'll meet you on Saturday. I have Chinese lessons on Tuesday mornings. The family always comes over on Christmas Day. Now, remember when we used at Christmas, we were talking about at Christmas time. Here, we're talking about the particular day, the 25th of December, whether it's a Monday, Tuesday, whatever, it's on Christmas Day. The family always comes over to me on Christmas Day. Okay, so on, when we're talking about preposition of time, we use on before days and specific dates. And when we're using on referring to particular parts of the day, so it can be, you know, on Saturday morning, on Wednesday evening, on Friday afternoon, it doesn't matter what part of the day we're still using that preposition on. So Sarah's birthday is on the 15th of April. I'll see you on Saturday. I have Chinese or Spanish lessons on Tuesday mornings, and the family always comes over to me on Christmas Day. Okay, so then if we look again, prepositions of time, talking about the preposition in. And when we use in, we're talking about longer periods. Okay, so this could be weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. It doesn't matter. Once we get beyond days, any longer period, we're using the preposition in. Okay, Julius Caesar, that's a long way back. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 BC. Okay, so that was before Christ in 50, in the year 55 BC. My birthday is in July. When is your birthday? My birthday is in July. I hate having to get up in winter. Okay, so that's a period. It's a season in winter or spring or summer. I hate having to get up in winter. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. And we can also use in to say how soon something will happen. It would be difficult for me to do both of those things in three days. I will need a couple of extra days. It will be difficult for me to do both of those things in three days. I'll call you in a week and we can discuss it. I'll call you in a week and we can discuss it. The game will end in 10 minutes. The game will end in 10 minutes. And we can also, again, use in when we talk about the length of time it will take for something to happen. For example, if you're talking about a marathon race, he can run a marathon in under three hours. He can run a marathon in under two hours, 30 minutes. It doesn't matter what the time is, but when we're talking about how long it's going to take, he can run a marathon in under three hours. Okay, so that's at, on, and in when we're talking about particular periods of time, okay? So at, on, and in. And I've given you the examples and make sure you go through those and practice them. An easy way to practice is when we talk about birthdays. So if we talk about, let's say, my birthday is 5th of July and I was born in, yes, 1956. So the day, 5th, the month, July, the year 1956. So I can say I was born on the 5th day of July, okay, in the year 1956, okay? Or if I wanted to just say I was born in July, so I use the preposition in July, in 1956. But if I'm talking about the date, then I say on, I was born on the 5th of July, in the year 1956. Or if I knew the time, so let's say it was five minutes after midnight, then I could say I was born at 12.05 on the 5th of July in 1956. And there you get all of them, at, in, and on. So you can practice that with yourself and with your family just to make sure you get it accurate. When do you use at, when do you use in, and when do you use on. Okay, so let's move on now to prepositions of place. So we've done prepositions of time. Now we're looking at prepositions of place. So when we use at, we use at to refer to a position as a point. Okay, for example, example, there's someone at the door. So that's the point where they are and the position is the door. So there's someone at the door. So it's not someone on the door or in the door. It's someone at the door. There is someone at the door. Jack is at home. Okay, where is he? He's at home. Okay, so someone at the door and Jack is at home. So they're examples of prepositions of place when we're using at. And it's referring to a position as a point, the particular place at home or at the door. Now, just be very careful here. We don't use the article the after the preposition when we're talking about home. So it's at home, school, at school, work, at work, university, at university, college, at college. So it's not at the university, at the home, at the work. It's always at home, school, work, university, and college. Okay, so that's the preposition of place using at. Now again, sticking with the preposition of place, let's talk about on. And we use on to refer to a position in relation to a surface or a line. So that's a little bit formal. So let me give you a couple of examples what that means. Okay, so we live on a very busy road. So that's about line. We live on a very busy road, not at a very busy road, on a very busy road. The book is on the table. So that's a surface. The book is on the table. Many people hang a wreath on the door at Christmas. Yeah? So that's again about surface. They hang a wreath on the door at Christmas. The book is on the table and we live on a very busy road. So all examples of the preposition of place using the preposition on. Okay, so let's switch then to in. Again, it's still preposition of place, remember? So in, we use in to refer to a position in relation to something that could be three-dimensional, okay, or when something is surrounded on all sides. For example, I live in a country, I live in a town, I live in a city, I'm sitting in a room, I'm walking in a field, I'm having a picnic in a forest. Any place with boundaries, we can use that preposition in. So let me give you some examples of that. I had a great time in Canada. The Eiffel Tower is in Paris. The kids are playing in the garden. I am sleeping or sitting in my room. So all prepositions of place using the preposition in. And we also use prepositions when we talk about the context. So I'll just go into those in a little while. But just make sure you understand the preposition of time and the preposition of place relating to at, on, and in. So when we're using prepositions, we also use those when we're depending on the context. For example, we can be in a building or at a building. So the context means what are you doing? So let's say if I'm going to the cinema, I could say to you, I'll meet you in the cinema, which means I'll be inside and you have your ticket and I'll be sitting in row X, Y or Z. So I'll meet you in the cinema, means inside. Or I'll meet you at the cinema means I'll meet you outside the cinema, perhaps in the foyer, yeah, or on the footpath at the entrance of the cinema. You're going to be outside on the street. So if I say I'll meet you in the cinema, it's absolutely perfect to use it, but it means inside. If I say I'll meet you at the cinema, it usually means I'll be standing at the foyer waiting for you to get the tickets, or I'll meet you on the footpath outside or on the street outside the entrance of the cinema. So that's all about context, in or at. And if we're talking about addresses, just be careful how we use in, at and on when we're talking about addresses. As I said before, we all live in a town or live in a city. It's not on a town or on a city or at a town or at a city. We all live in a town or in a city. And if we're talking about a particular address, then he lives at that. He lives at number 24 Eglinton Road. He lives at number 24 Eglinton Road. Now in grammar books, you might say see, sorry, you might see reference to he lives in Eglinton Road, where they don't give you a particular number. I personally say he lives on Eglinton Road. So you can use in or on. Grammar books usually refer to in, and I will use on, so you have a choice. But he lives at number 24 Eglinton Road. He lives in Eglinton Road, according to the grammar books, or on Eglinton Road, and they're both fine. Or if he's in an apartment, then he lives on the second floor or on the third floor. So you can use a particular context there as exactly where his apartment is located. So if the apartment block or the house is number 24 Eglinton Road, he lives at 24 Eglinton Road on the second floor. Okay. Now, a lot of prepositions are often confused. So I'm going to go through these with you. Some of these are a little bit more advanced, but there's no harm in knowing them and learning them because you'll come across them and you often get confused. And I know from the students that I've worked with, they do cause confusion. So I'll go through them slowly and you might need to go through these once a couple of times just to make sure you understand them. Okay, so I'm going to give you some comparisons of prepositions that do cause confusion. Now, one that often causes confusion is over and across. So we'll compare the two, over and across. We use over to mean onto the other side of something high. For example, a wall. He climbed over the wall. So he doesn't climb across the wall. He climbs over the wall. So if you're using something high, like a wall or a fence, he climbs over that particular wall or fence. For example, the prisoner escaped by climbing over the wall. The prisoner escaped by climbing over the fence. And we use a cross when we're talking about something we think of as reasonably flat, not so high, or a flat surface, or an area like the sea or a particular country. I saw her across the room at a party. I saw her across the room at a party. The show was broadcast across Europe. The show was broadcast across Europe. Now when I mention bridge here, you can use both across and over. He went across the bridge or he drove across the bridge, he ran across the bridge, or he ran over the bridge. The bus goes over the bridge to get to the other side of the city because it's reasonably flat and therefore you can use over or across. But if we're talking something very, very high, a wall or a fence, then it's always to climb over that particular thing. Okay? Okay, so some other prepositions where we get confusion. And these ones now, these always cause confusion. So again, go over them a couple of times. If you don't understand them or you need more examples, then just come back in and ask me. So we're talking now about above and below or over and under. Above, below, over and under. So we use above or below when one thing is not directly over or under another. Okay, so for example, there are many cities that are located below sea level. So when you look at the map of the world, there are many cities that are located below sea level. They're not under sea level because then they would be underwater, but they are below sea level. So they have to have special bridges or blockades built on the seashore to prevent the water coming into the city. Okay, so there are many cities that are located below sea level. He saw a man below whom he did not recognize. So if he was looking down from a wall or a high building, he saw a man below whom he did not recognize. It's not he saw a man under, because then that means he's under something. Yeah? Okay, so he saw a man below whom he did not recognize. So using above and below when one thing is not directly over or under another thing. Okay, let's go back then to over. Over and under, we use it when one thing covers or is covered by another. So over and under, we use it when one thing is covered or covers by another. The cat was hiding under the bed. He wasn't below the bed, okay? He's under the bed. The cat was hiding under the bed. Another preposition that gets confused are during and throughout. During and throughout. We use during to mean sometime within a bigger period of time. Okay, so it could be during your summer holidays. Yeah, you met your friends or you went on a cruise or you went on a holiday or you went to an English course during your summer holidays. Okay, so it wasn't for the whole period. It was for part of that period during your summer holidays. We moved house during our winter break. We moved house during our winter break, not over the whole winter break, but just for a few days or a week during a winter break. Or a lot of people go skiing during their winter break. They don't go for the whole of their winter break, but they go during the winter break for a few days or five or six days. And if we want to use throughout or all through, so this means that we're talking about something that is continuous, so it lasts for the full period of time. So for example, it rained throughout the night. It rained all through the night. It means continuously without stopping. Now, I could say it rained during the night, but it means not for the whole period of the night time, but it rained during the night because when I got up in the morning and I looked out the window, there were some puddles on the ground. So that indicated that it had rained during the night. But if I got up and the rain is lashing down from the heavens and your partner says to you, yeah, it was raining throughout the night or all through the night because it woke me up lashing against the window. So this would indicate that it was continuous. So if we're talking about during and throughout, be very careful. During is for part of the period and throughout usually means continuous for the whole time. Okay. Other prepositions that get confused, until and by, they're not so difficult, but they do get confused. So when we want to use until, we talk about activities that continue up to a period of time or up to a particular time. Many people are living with their parents until they are in their 20s. So they used to go to college and then they used to move out, but because of economic situations now, we find that many people are living at home with their parents until their late 20s. Okay, so it's not throughout the period, but until the late 20s. And we use by to talk about activities that happen before a particular time. I'll be definitely home by nine o'clock. So you could say, I'll be working until eight o'clock, but I will definitely be home by nine o'clock. Okay, so I'll be working until eight. So up to that time, but I'll be definitely home by nine o'clock. Okay, so we use by to talk about activities that happen before or at a particular time. And then one more, if we use the word accept and besides, accept and besides. And usually when we use accept, we're talking about accept for something. Okay, so we use accept for when something is not included. It's excluded, it's not included. This store is open every day except for Sunday. This store is open every day except for Sunday. Everyone except the father had gone to bed around 11.30. Everyone except the father or the mother had gone to bed around 11.30. And then we use besides when talking about something in addition to, besides, in addition to. Besides being a writer, he was also a painter. Besides being a teacher, he was also a PE instructor. Claire wasn't free on the night of the party. Besides, she wasn't even invited. So she wasn't free or available on the night of the party. Well, besides, she wasn't even invited. So even if she was free, she wouldn't have gone. So accept or besides. So they're all prepositions that we can get confused with. So accept, besides, until or by, during, throughout or all through, and then over and under, above and below, just to make sure we understand when we use them. And of course, in the very first part of this when we used in, at or on. So what I'll do is I'll do another lesson for you a little later with some other prepositions that will give you some information about other prepositions that we can use in the exact same way. So try to practice, try to put some sentences similar to the examples that I've given you, put them into your own words, practice those and then practice them when you're speaking to your friends or your colleagues. And if you still have problems, as I gave you the address at the beginning, write to me and I'll give you some further examples then. Okay, so this is Harry. Thanking you for watching. Thanking you for listening. And as always, make sure you join me for the next lesson.