13.

3 Prepositions of place part 1

Prepositions of place.

[00:00:02] Prepositions of place can tell us where something is. The physical location. Let's start
by looking at how we use at in and on for location.

[00:00:11] At a point.

[00:00:13] At tells us that something is located at a specific point or location. It's an exact
location. For example, if you're at home, at work, at the bank, at the store, at the train station,
at the entrance, at the exit, or at your desk.

[00:00:29] These are some specific locations we can mention. And it's important to realize that
this can mean inside of these specific locations or buildings, or directly outside of them or in a
space that is considered to belong to them.

[00:00:44] Where are you? / I'm at the store.

[00:00:46] See you at work tomorrow.

[00:00:47] I'll meet you at the stadium.

[00:00:49] Common expressions with at.

[00:00:51] At home. At school. At work.

[00:00:54] You'll notice we don't use a possessive pronoun like my. These are general
expressions, and we understand that it's your home, school and work.

[00:01:03] Events like a sporting event concert and party.

[00:01:06] We use at for these types of things. So if someone asks where you are you'll probably
respond.

[00:01:12] I'm at a concert.

[00:01:13] However, if they are attending that concert with you, they're probably asking for your
EXACT location, so that they can find you. In this case, they're asking where you are in the
stadium, since you are in an enclosed space.

[00:01:28] Pages. When looking at a page like you do when reading articles or books, we say at
the bottom of the page and at the top of the page. If it's in between the top and the bottom, will
say in the middle of the page.

[00:01:42] In. In enclosed spaces.

[00:01:45] In tells us that something is inside of something or surrounded by or closed off by
different sides or walls. Most often, we're talking about physical walls or barriers, like the sides
of a box and the walls of a cup or building. And when it is a physical, usually smaller space, we
can also use inside. Otherwise we might use inside for some larger places like inside the house,
but usually just to add emphasis. But in can also be more abstract, like in a country or in a city.
We don't use inside here. These places kind of have walls and sides, but they are imaginary and
decided based on politics and not real walls most of the time.

[00:02:26] Where are my books?

[00:02:27] I put them in that box over there, or I put them inside that box over there.

[00:02:33] Where do you live?

[00:02:34] I live in Seattle in the United.

[00:02:37] Mark's in his room. He said he's hungry because there's no food in the fridge. And
he's upset because there's no room for his car in the garage or in the driveway.

[00:02:46] You could technically use inside a few times in the sentence. Also, however, it would
sound strange because the expressions we use inside with, in this example, are normally not
stressed or emphasized.

[00:02:58] Expressions with in.

[00:03:00] Some uses of in are more abstract or don't follow the regular rules. Here are some.

[00:03:05] Sleep. If you're talking about sleep or getting rest we say that we are in bed. Think of
it as being under your blankets. But if something or someone is on your bed, we will talk about
on in a tiny bit, we're talking about something or someone being on top of your blankets or
sheets.

[00:03:23] A few other ones you have to memorize are in hospital if you are in the UK, but in the
US, we say in the hospital. For both of these expressions, in hospital or in the hospital, means
you are the patient staying at the hospital for an extended period of time, But if you're there
very briefly or visiting someone, you will say at the hospital. So I'm at the hospital visiting my
friend who's in the hospital.

[00:03:51] Birds and planes are in the sky.

[00:03:54] Things and events happen in the world.

[00:03:56] We read stuff in a newspaper and in books.

[00:04:00] We look at things in a photograph and in a picture.

[00:04:04] We ride in a car and in a taxi.

[00:04:06] And when talking about something being half the distance between two things, we
say it is in the middle.

[00:04:13] Like the US is in the middle of Mexico and Canada, or it's between Mexico and
Canada.

[00:04:20] On.

[00:04:21] For location, on always refers to a surface. What is on, attached to, or touching the
surface. If you have a table, your plates go on the table. If you have a floor, you walk on the
floor. Your chair is on the floor. Most of the time we can also say on top of.

[00:04:37] You set your books on the desk.

[00:04:39] You set your books on top of the desk.

[00:04:42] Let's watch TV on the couch.

[00:04:44] Remember that we set things on your bed and maybe you sit down or lay down on
your bed for a few minutes. This means you are on top of your blankets and sheets. When you
sleep though, you lay under your blankets and sheets. That's when we say to be in bed and it's
really the same for the couch or sofa, because a couch has cushions, but we always sit or lay on
top of them.

[00:05:09] If something is in your couch. It means it fell under or between the cushions. Like
coins or other smaller things like crumbs from things you eat while sitting on the couch.

[00:05:21] Put your backpack on your desk, don't put it on the floor.

[00:05:25] There's ketchup on my shirt. I must have spilled when I was eating.

[00:05:29] Expressions with on.

[00:05:31] First Expressions related to travel.

[00:05:33] We ride in a car, but we ride and travel on a bus, on a train on a ship and on a plane.

[00:05:41] I can't hear you. I'm on the bus right now.

[00:05:43] I usually read on the train.

[00:05:45] It's hard to get comfortable on a plane.

[00:05:47] Buildings.

[00:05:48] In a building there are different stories or levels of the building, and it's always to be
on a floor or on a level. In the United States, when you enter a building, we call that the first
floor. The floor when you first enter. But in the majority of countries outside of the US, when
you first walk into a building, it's the ground floor. And the floor or story above that is the first
floor. Then the second third, etc.

[00:06:14] Sometimes in the US, and often confusing, the first floor is marked G on an elevator,
meaning ground floor, which confuses many Americans because it's more common to see a 1
instead, which means first floor. Some buildings only have one floor, while skyscrapers and high-
rises can have more than a hundred. You can say either story or floor. It's exactly the same and
we use both. Just know that in the US, we say apartment and in the UK, they say flat when
talking about a shared building with individual living quarters.

[00:06:48] I live on the third floor.

[00:06:50] Let's take the elevator because she lives on the third story.

[00:06:53] It's a three-story apartment

[00:06:55] On when going places.

[00:06:57] There's an expression we can use to mean two different things. The expression is on
the way. First we can say to be on the way, to mean that you already left for a place. You are
already in your car, walking, taking the bus or whatever, and are in some part of your journey to
another place.

[00:07:14] We can also say on the way, to mean a location person or thing that you will
encounter during your journey.

[00:07:21] I already left. I'm on my way. See you in 30 minutes.

[00:07:25] On your way to the store. Can you stop at the school? It's on the way, so it won't take
much extra time.

[00:07:30] After work,on my way home, I ran into Susan.

[00:07:33] TV and mobile devices.

[00:07:36] Finally when talking about things on our phones ,computers, TV and other things that
have a screen. We use on. Basically these images are projected. They appear on the screen of
these devices. That's why we use on.

[00:07:50] I watched it on TV last night.

[00:07:52] What are you looking at on your phone?

[00:07:54] The sun's making it hard to see what's on my screen.