One of my common grammar mistakes is prepositions. My problem is to decide which one to use and which one not to use. There are only a few prepositions words in English. However, they are used extremely frequently, expressing various meanings in the context. So far, I have already used three prepositions in this blog entry. Here comes the 4th. The meanings of sentences vary a lot with different choices of prepositions.
Example: Were there any calls for me?
You had a call from Fred.
I made a call to a friend in London.
In what way, prepositions are used?
Prepositions are usually used before none, pronouns or gerunds. They show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word or words.
Example: The girl on the bike looked at the children on the swing.
The most commonly used prepositions are about, above, among, at, in, on, before, behind, between, during, for, from, into, over, towards, until, upon, within, without.
More often, prepositions are used with other words.
#With verbs:
e.g. aim at; allow for; appeal to; believe in; blame for; coincide with; comment on; refrain from; insist on
#With adjectives and participles:
e.g. Accompanied by; accustomed to; characterized by; common to; comparable with; equal to; essential for; inferior to; worthy of; regardless of; indifferent to…
#With nouns and phrases
e.g. in accordance with; a capacity for; to a high degree; the opposite of; for the purpose of; with reference to
How to improve?
Basically, there is no short cut to improve the accurate usage of prepositions. The best way is to familiarize ourselves with the words in phases. Given the context, we can understand better. To read more also helps us to differ the various usages of the prepositions.
Here is a short essay I extracted from
Our learner was in a terrible state. He knew he wanted to go somewhere but he didn't know how. At this moment he was standing near a bridge. Should he go by bus, by train, by car, by boat or possibly quite simply on foot? He could walk across the bridge, under the bridge but he couldn't possibly jump over the bridge. He just knew he wanted to get out of town. Once he had arrived there by car he could obviously get out of the car or the train or the bus but he'd have to get off the boat. And now he had arrived in the town centre and was sitting inside the tourist office looking out of the window. Well, he couldn't actually see through the window because the glass was very dirty. He left the tourist office and stood outside for a few minutes thinking what to do next. He saw a policeman coming towards him and he thought he'd ask him where to go.But the policeman walked past him and went along the street taking no notice of him. Anyhow when he thought about it, what could a police officer do for him? The trouble was that he didn't speak the language although he had learnt a few phrases by heart. He knew how to say: On what day is there a festival? At what time do the shops shut? Can I put my bike against the wall? None of these questions would be of use to him. What he really wanted to know was: Where is there a hotel? He was on the point of giving up when he saw a wonderful hotel in front of him. He walked up to the reception and within minutes he was sitting in a beautiful bedroom that looked over the sea. He had a fabulous meal in the restaurant and then went back to his room. He got into bed and fell into a deep sleep. It was in the middle of the night that he suddenly realized he wouldn't have enough money to pay for the accommodation. He decided to continue with his sleep and when he woke up he got ready and went down to the restaurant for his breakfast. He didn't leave that hotel for three weeks. That was how long it took for him to pay for that overnight stay by working in the kitchen as a washer up.
References: http://clc.cqu.edu.au/FCWViewer/getFile.do?id=20711#260,5,Prepositions used with verbs
6 comments:
Hi Hu Xuan~
Your explanation about prepositions is very clear and a lot of examples are used, it’s very helpful and I realized there’s actually a lot of the usage that I don’t know before. I’ve learned a lot, thank you very much~! ^^Besides that, the short essay is very interesting! We can see how the prepositions are being used beautifully in different situations to create different meanings, it’s marvelous! I’d a good time reading it~ ^^
By the way, for the exercise Q1, I wonder why we can’t use ‘over’ instead of ‘by’ and ‘into’ instead of ‘on’; because I choose A as my answer, so could you please help me with this..? Thanks~
Truthfully, I've forgot most of the grammar terms I've learnt since my primary school days, such as 'prepositions', 'gerund'... etc. Your post about prepositions did well in refreshing my memory. I like how you gave an essay for leisure reading. However, you should highlight the prepositions in the essay so that it would be clearer and more relevant for your readers. Also, I have the same question as Wen Hui about the exercise Q1. But still, good work. Keep it up!
The explanation about preposition is quite clear and informative. I agree that the best way to improve this grammar part is by getting use to it through reading.
The article is interesting to read and do give a lot of examples.
And thanks for the exercise too.
oops, I made a mistake. Hehe. The answer to Q1 is A. Thank you Wenhui and Michael~
yeah,preposition is also my most common mistake. You really give a good explanation, and i learned a lot. You know, when I use the prepositions with especially the verb, I am always confused by the various meaning, such as "call for" "call to", as well as "call at","call after" and so on. It is just like a mass......
Thank you for your exercises, I think it is the best way to learn and remember all the things about preposition.
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