Prepositions 1 – In/At/On (1)

A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. Some common prepositions are in, on, at, under, above, of, by, with, about, between, among, to and from.

Good command of prepositions is crucial if you want to speak good English.

Since there are quite many of them, and each is used differently, for this session we will focus on 3 prepositions only. They are in, at and on.

In

In a room

In a building

In a box

In a garden

In a city/town

In a country

Examples:

·         There’s no one in the room / in the building / in the garden.

·         What have you got in your hand / in your mouth?

·         When we were in Italy, we spent a few days in Venice.

·         I have a friend who lives in a small village in the mountains.

·         Look at those people swimming in the pool / in the sea / in the river.

At

At the window

At the door

At the bus stop

At the top of the page

At the end of the street

Examples:

·         Who is that man standing at the bus stop / at the door / at the window?

·         Turn left at the traffic lights / at the church / at the roundabout.

·         Write your name at the top / at the bottom of the page.

·         Angela’s house is the white one at the end of the street.

·         When you leave the hotel, please leave your key at reception.

On

On the ceiling

On the door

On the wall

On the table

On the floor

On her nose

On a page

On an island

Examples:

·         I sat on the floor / on the ground / on the grass / on a chair / on the beach.

·         There’s a dirty mark on the wall / on the ceiling / on your nose / on your shirt.

·         Have you seen the notice on the notice board / on the door?

·         You’ll find details of TV programmes on page seven of the newspaper.

Right. The information above should be able to help you understand how to use in, at and on appropriately. That’s not all yet. There will be more coming soon. So, make sure you also read the next post on in, at and on.

Thank you for visiting this page. Hope it helps. Bye.

P.S.: The information is based on one of Raymond Murphy’s grammar books.