Spurred by a suggestion by a now-retired Filipina friend who taught English as a second language for many years in Hong Kong, the Forum begins this week a five-part, full-dress review of English preposition usage. This series is meant to address counterintuitive and admittedly tough aspects of English grammar—among them faulty negative constructions and imprecise preposition usage—that she found in her teaching experience to be major stumbling blocks to attaining English proficiency by Asian and Filipino learners.The prepositions are perhaps the most hardworking part of speech of the English language. They give sentences that much-needed sense of place and time and logic, without which they could plunge into a netherworld of incoherence.
There are prepositions that establish relationships in space, prepositions of movement and direction, and prepositions of time, date, and duration. They come in so many kinds and do so many things. In fact, one simply cannot become a good writer or speaker in English until the prepositions have become second nature to his or her ears and tongue.
Be forewarned at the very outset that unlike nouns and verbs, there’s no telling how certain prepositions may fit until they are used in specific contexts. For instance, there’s this much-touted formal rule for choosing among the prepositions of place and location: “Live
at an address,
in a house or city,
on a street,
with other people.”
IMAGE CREDIT: BOOK COVER ILLUSTRATION BY CHONGHO LEE*That rule makes “at” look and sound perfect for this sentence, “The building is located
at Fort Bonifacio”—but only for as long as we think of Fort Bonifacio
as an address. When saying that you’re a Fort Bonifacio
resident, however, “in” seems a much better choice: “I live
in Fort Bonifacio.” What this means is that with certain prepositions, we just have to learn to play it by ear.
PREPOSITIONS THAT ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS IN SPACELet’s start with the prepositions that establish relationships in space, or those that indicate the place and location of something. The staple prepositions for this purpose are, of course, “in,” “at,” and “on,” and the general rule for using them is “in” for an enclosed space, “at” for a point, and “on” for a surface.
IMAGE CREDIT: TEST-ENGLISH.COM 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 rivers,
in lakes,
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: “She lives
at 40 Lilac St.”
Use “on” for names of streets, roads, avenues, and boulevards: “Her apartment is
on San Pablo 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).”
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).”
IMAGE CREDIT: ENGLISHWITHPICTURES.COMKeep in mind that these guidelines are specifically for American English, the standard in general use in the Philippines. There are some important usage variations in British English. As they say, “Londoners live
in a street and stay
in farm cottages
at weekends,” but “New Yorkers and English-speaking Manilans live
on a street and stay
in farm cottages
on weekends.”
We’ll take up the prepositions of movement and direction next week.
(Next:
A full-dress review of English preposition usage - 2) April 4, 2019
This essay, 1,137th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the March 28, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.-------------
*The Forum gratefully acknowledges that this superb illustration by Chongho Lee is the front cover artwork of the ebook The Logic of English Prepositions by J. Daniel Moore.THE FORUM'S 5-PART PREPOSITION SERIES IN FULL:1. A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 1 (Place and Location) THIS POSTING2. A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 2 (Motion and Direction)3. A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 3 (Time and Duration)4. Prepositions at work in literal prepositional phrases5. Prepositions at work in prepositional idioms
