In English, the common run of prepositions establishes a space or time relationship between ideas within a phrase, clause, or sentence. They fall under five groups: (1)
the prepositions of place and location, namely “in,” “at,” and “on”; (2)
the prepositions of motion, namely “to,” “toward,” “in,” and “into”; (3)
the prepositions of movement and direction, namely “to,” “onto,” and “into”; (4)
the prepositions for specific points of time, namely “on,” “at,” “in,” and “after”; and (5)
the prepositions for periods or extended time, namely “since,” “for,” “by,” “from…to,” “from…until,” “before,” “during,” “within,” “between,” and “beyond.”
Other than these five, there’s another
group of prepositions that establishes specific logical relationships. They work like the conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs—but with a big difference. These prepositions do their connecting job within the same clause or phrase, in contrast to the conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs, which do theirs between clauses, across sentences, or across paragraphs. An example of such prepositions is “besides,” which establishes an additive relationship between “fiction” and “movies” in this single-clause sentence: “She loves reading fiction
besides watching movies.”
Before taking up the prepositions with conjunctive properties, however, let’s first review the prepositions that establish relationships in space and time and those that indicate movement and direction.
The prepositions “in,” “at,” and “on” for indicating place and location. The general rule is to use “in” for an enclosed space, “at” for a point, and “on” for a surface. Here are specific guidelines for their use in American English:
Use “in” for spaces: “They always meet
in a secret room [
in a suburban hotel,
in a parking lot,
in a farm,
in a ricefield].”
Use “in” for names of specific land areas: “She lives
in a quiet town [
in Tagaytay,
in Cavite,
in Southern Tagalog,
in the island of Palawan,
in the Philippines,
in Southeast Asia].
Use “in” for bodies of water: “That kind of fish thrives
in freshwater [
in the river,
in the lake,
in streams,
in the sea].”
Use “in” for lines: “The registrants are
in a row [
in a line,
in a queue].”
Use “at” to indicate points: “You’ll find us
at the entrance [
at the taxi stand,
at the supermarket,
at the intersection].”
Use “at” for specific addresses, as in “She lives
at 40 Lilac St.”
Use “on” for names of streets, roads, avenues, and boulevards: “Her apartment is
on San Rafael Street [
on Ortigas Avenue,
on Santolan Road,
on Roxas Boulevard].”
Use “on” for surfaces: “There’s a large stain on the floor [on the wall, on the ceiling, on the roof].”
The prepositions “in,” “at,” and “on” for indicating location. Use “in” in these cases: “The children are
in the kitchen [
in the garden,
in the car,
in the library,
in the class,
in school]. (The article “the” is mandatory except for the fourth and last example.)
Use “at” in these particular cases: “She was
at home [
at the library,
at the office,
at school, at work] when we arrived.”
Use “on” in these particular cases: “They are
on the plane [
on the train,
on the boat].”
Some locations, though, don’t need a preposition between them and the verb: “They sleep downstairs [inside, outside, downtown, upstairs, uptown].”
We’ll take up the prepositions of motion and direction next, but before doing so, I’d like to point out that English preposition usage is much more complicated than that of our Tagalog-based national language. English has at least 24 prepositions of space and time, but Filipino has only one preposition—
“sa”—to do the job of 12 of those English prepositions, as in
“Nagkita sila sa
tulay sa
Sta. Cruz sa
bandang kanan ng simbahan.”(“They met
at the bridge
in Sta. Cruz
on the right side of the church.”)
(Next:
The preposition as another type of functional connective - 3) June 22, 2017
This essay, 1044th of a series, appeared in the weekly column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Education Section of The Manila Times
, June 15, 2017 issue (print edition only), © 2017 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
