UH-Victoria

Prepositions

Choosing the Right Preposition to Say What You Mean

We use at when referring to specific times.

  • The bus will leave at 2:30 p.m.

We use in when referring to nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a year.

  • She likes to drink coffee in the morning.
  • It is always so cold in February.
  • The bluebonnets will bloom in the spring.
  • They started dating in 1995.

We use on when referring to days and dates.

  • My grandmother will be here on Tuesday.
  • We’re having our family reunion on the Fourth of July.

Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in

 

We use at for specific addresses.

  • The Johnson family lives at 509 Lawndale in Victoria.

We use on for names of streets, avenues, etc.

  • The supermarket is on Navarro Street.

We use in for names of land or areas, such as towns, counties, states, countries, and continents.

  • Jackie lives in Port Lavaca.
  • Cuero is in Dewitt County.
  • Victoria County is in Texas.
  • Akina lives in South America.

Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in

IN AT ON NO Preposition
(the) bed* class* the bed* downstairs
the bedroom home the ceiling downtown
the car the library* the floor inside
(the) class* the office the horse outside
the library* school* the plane upstairs
school* work the train uptown

* other prepositions can sometimes be used.

 

Prepositions of Movement: to and towards

We use to when expressing movement toward a place.

  • Sue and James are driving to the baseball game.

We can also use toward and towards when expressing movement. These two words can be used according to your preference. They are just simply two different spellings of the same word.

  • The car was moving toward the water.
  • The children were headed towards the concession stand.

Note: We do not use any prepositions with words such as home, downtown, uptown, inside, outside, downstairs, and upstairs.

Examples:

  • I can hear the baby crying downstairs.
  • Janie was ready to go home.

Prepositions of Time: for and since

We use for to measure time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years).

  • He went under water for 10 minutes.
  • Courtney lived in Europe for 5 years.
  • The cruise will last for ten days.

We use since when referring to a specific date or time.

  • Jonathan has had that car since 1980.
  • Sally has been a member since 5:00 p.m.

Continue to Phrasal Prepositions