Most preposition usage is essentially conventional, even quirkish at times, and many preposition choices actually have no inherent or discernible logic of their own. For instance, it’s not easy to discern any logical difference between “in,” “on,” and “at” as prepositions of place and location, and this is why so many nonnative English speakers take a long time to master their proper usage. Achieving this mastery, in fact, requires committing to memory the specific prepositions needed according to established usage, and it’s a task that becomes even more tedious and difficult in the case of the prepositional phrases and prepositional idioms.
The common run of prepositions usually establishes a space or time relationship between ideas within a phrase, clause, or sentence, and they can be divided into five groups:
1. The prepositions of place and location: “in,” “at,” and “on”
2. The prepositions of motion: “to,” “toward,” “in,” and “into”
3. The prepositions of movement and direction: “to,” “onto,” and “into”
4. The prepositions for specific points of time: “on,” “at,” “in,” and “after”
5. The prepositions for periods or extended time: “since,” “for,” “by,” “from…to,”
“from…until,” “before,” “during,” “within,” “between,” and “beyond.”
Rules for Usage:PREPOSITIONS THAT ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS IN SPACEThe 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 some 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 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].”
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].”
Rules for Usage:PREPOSITIONS THAT ESTABLISH MOTION AND DIRECTIONThe prepositions of motion “to,” “toward,” “in,” and “into.” These four prepositions link the verbs of movement—“move,” “go,” “transfer,” “walk,” “run,” “swim,” “ride,” “drive,” “fly,” “travel,” and many more—to their object destination. All of these verbs, except “transfer,” can take both “to” and “toward.”
We must keep in mind, however, that “to” is used to convey the idea of movement toward a specific destination, while “toward” is used to convey movement in a general direction that may not reach a specific destination:
“Please take me
to the bus station.”
(The speaker obligates the listener to specifically take him to a particular place.)
“The speedboat headed
toward the harbor.”
(The speaker indicates only a movement in a general direction.)
We can actually interchange “into” and “in” more or less freely when used with verbs of motion. There are exceptions, though. We can only use “in” (or “inside”) when the preposition is the last word in the sentence or occurs right before an adverbial of time (“today,” “tomorrow”), manner (“quickly,” “hurriedly”) or frequency (“once,” “twice”).
Examples: “The woman went
into the manager’s office.” “The woman went
in twice.” “The woman went
in.” “The new tenants moved
into the apartment yesterday” “The new tenants moved
in hurriedly.” “The new tenants moved
in.”
We can also use “into” as the last word in a question: “What sort of trouble have you gotten yourself
into?” But we should use “in” if the question is said in this form: “What sort of trouble are you in?”
“In/into” also has two unique uses with the verb “move.” The first is when “move in” is followed by a clause indicating purpose or motive: “The hunters moved
in for the kill.” “The soldiers moved
in for the attack.” In both examples, “in” is part of the verb phrase, so we cannot use “into.”
The second case is when we use “into” with “move” to convey the idea of simple movement: “The firemen moved
into the burning building.”
The prepositions of direction “to,” “onto,” and “into.” These prepositions correspond to the common prepositions of location: “to” for “at,” “onto” for “on,” and “into” for “in.” Each is defined by the same space relations of point, line, surface, or area as in the prepositions of location.
“To,” the basic directional preposition, signifies orientation toward a goal. If that goal is physical, like a specific destination, “to” conveys the idea of movement in the direction of that goal: “The troops returned
to their base.”
“Toward,” of course, also works as a directional preposition, and means about the same thing as the directional preposition “to.” If the goal is not a physical place, as in an action, “to” simply puts the verb in the infinitive form to express a particular purpose: “She sings
to earn extra money.” “She cut her hair
to show her displeasure.”
The directional prepositions “onto” and “into” are, as we know, compounds formed by “to” with corresponding prepositions of location: on + to = onto, to signify movement toward a surface, and in + to = into, to signify movement inside a finite three-dimensional space or volume.
When used with many verbs of motion, however, “on” and “in” already have a directional meaning. We therefore can freely use them instead of “onto” and “into.” Note that “on” and “onto” work equally well in the following sentences: “The cats fell
on [
onto] the floor.” “The whales washed up
onto [
on] the beach.” “The girl jumped
into [
in] the river.”
You will notice, however, that always, the compound locational prepositions “onto” and “into” convey the consummation of an action, while the simple locational prepositions “on” and “in” indicate the subject’s end-position as a result of the action.
Let’s look at some examples.
Consummation of action: “The boy fell
onto [
to] the ground.” “The sailor dived
into [
to] the pool.”
Position of subject: “The boy is
on the ground.” “The sailor is
in the pool.”
Now we discover something interesting:
directional prepositions actually serve to convey the idea of cause, while
locational prepositions serve to convey the idea of effect. This, in fact, is as near a rule of thumb as we can get in dealing with these two kinds of prepositions.
We cannot leave this subject, of course, without discussing “at” as a preposition of motion and direction. Being the least specific of the prepositions in space orientation, we can use “at” in a good number of ways.
To mark a verb of motion directed towards a point: “She arrived
at the airport late.” “The marksman aimed
at the hostage-taker with precision.”
To indicate direction: “The man leaped
at the thief to subdue him.” “She jumped
at me without warning.”
Rules for Usage:PREPOSITIONS THAT ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS IN TIMEThe prepositions for specific points in time: “on,” “at,” “in,” and “after.” “On” is used with the days of the week: “We are going out
on Monday [
on Tuesday,
on Sunday].”
“On” is used for specific dates (optional in informal usage): “The trade fair will start
on March 12, 2003 [
on March 12,
on the 12th of March,
on the 12th ].”
“At” is used with clocked time: “She picks her son from school
at 4:30 p.m.”
“At” is used with the following times of the day: “noon,” “night,” “midnight,” “sunrise,” “sunset”: “We sail for Palawan
at noon [
at midnight,
at sunrise].”
“At” is used with certain major holidays (without the word “Day”) as points of time: “The family always gets together
at Thanksgiving [
at Christmas,
at Easter,
at Halloween].”
“In” is used with the following times of the day: “morning,” “afternoon,” “evening”: “She waters her roses
in the morning [
in the afternoon,
in the evening].”
“In” is used with dates that do not carry the specific day: “The Spanish explorer reached the Philippines
in March 1521.”
“In” is used with months, years, decades, and centuries as points of time: “The famous writer was born
in April [
in 1946,
in the 1940s,
in the 20th century].”
“In” is used with the seasons as points of time: “He promised not to leave her
in autumn [
in summer,
in spring,
in winter].”
“After” is used with events that happen later than another event or point of time: “The overseas worker came home only
after the holidays.”
The prepositions for periods or extended time: “since,” “for,” “by,” “from...to,” “from...until,” “during,” “within,” “between,” and “beyond.” “Since” is used with an event that happens at some time or continuously after another time or event: “She has not watched a movie
since last month.” “They have been producing noodles
since the war.”
“For” is used with particular durations: “Our president will be abroad
for three weeks [not
for long,
for most of next month].”
“By” is used with an act completed or to be completed by a certain time: “She expects to finish writing the book
by April [
by then,
by the second quarter].”
“From...to” is used to refer to the beginning and end of an activity or event: “The weather was stormy
from Wednesday
to Friday.”
“From...until” is used to refer to the beginning of one period to the beginning of another: “Our sales rose continuously
from Christmas
until right before Holy Week.”
“During” is used to refer to a period of time in which an event happens or an activity is done: “She had coffee
during the morning break.”
“Between” is used to refer to an action taking place between the beginning and the end of a period: “You must get the job done
between now and Friday.”
“Within” is used to refer to an action that must take place or be completed within a given period: “You must get the job done
within the week.”
“Beyond” is used to refer to a period of time after a particular event has taken place or a particular time has elapsed: “
Beyond the mid-1990s all of our offices had shifted to word processors.”
Prepositions for specific time frames. “In” is used with the three basic time frames: “past,” “present,” “future”: “He was a kindly man
in the past.” “She is doing nothing
in the present [“...
at present” is the preferred usage at present].” “
In the future, change the oil of your car regularly.”
“In” is used with prescribed time periods: “The project must be completed
in a month [
in a year,
in five years].”
Next:
Dealing with the Prepositional PhrasesRELATED DISCUSSIONS:Lesson #9 - Getting to Know the Prepositional PhrasesLesson #10 – Dealing with the Prepositional Idioms