A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, 

on, and with. Prepositions are usually used 
in front of nouns or pronouns and they 
show the relationship between the noun or 
pronoun and other words in a sentence.

Test your knowledge about 
the prepositions at, in, on,by and improve 
your knowledge.
1. My best friend lives ______ London.
In On At
 2. I'll be ready to leave ____ about ten  
minutes.
On In At
 
3.Since he met his new friend, my son 
never seems to be ______ home.
On In At

4. Adam responded to his wife's 
demands ______ throwing atantrum.
With By From
 
5, I think she spent the entire day 
______ the phone.
On In At

6.I will wait ______ 7:15, but then I'm 
going home. 
From At Until
 
 7. I am not interested _____ buying a 
new phone now.
To For In

8. My parents have been married 
______ twenty-nine years.
Since For Until
 
9. He usually travels to Turkey _______ 
Plane.
By With At
 
10. I was visiting my father _____ the 
hospital.
In On At
• General Fact 
Prepositions are
NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT TO
LEARN 
Fact 1 Germans, Russians and Latin 
have their preps inflected.
Fact 2 Preps with spatial meanings do 
not always match up well from one 
Fact 3
Even native-speakers of English experience 
variable performances with regard to which 
preposition they use for meanings
Thus
It is critical that teachers analyze preposition 
through a TRIDIMENSIONAL approach focusing on
FORM
MEANING
USE
The Form of Prepositions (1 of 3)
Understanding, Using and Teaching Prepositions

THE FORM OF PREPOSITIONS

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS
Prepositions are free morphemes
Prepositions, normally, precede a Noun or Noun
Phrase
PrepP Prep NP (wherein N is the object of the
preposition)
for us / for John
Some complex prepositions consist of two or more
words that function as single prepositions
because of / on top of / in front of
THE FORM OF PREPOSITIONS CO-
OCCURRENCE WITH VERBS,
ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS
Verbs Prep Adj Prep
to rely on to be dependent on
to detract from to be free from / of
to consist of to be sorry for
• THE FORM OF PREPOSITIONS
Sometimes, the same verb with two
different prepositions will have
significantly different meanings.
1.You should provide for your old age
now.
2. The Red Cross provided us with
blankets last night.
3. I am moving on. 4.I am moving in.
THE FORM OF PREPOSITIONS
However, sometimes, two different
prepositions
can be used with the same verb with
little or no
change of meaning.
• John competes with his older brother.
• John competes against his older
brother.
THE FORM OF PREPOSITIONS

It is possible for some verbs to be

followed by a preposition.
In the samples, however, there are
meaning differences. Also, the
prepositions weakens the
transitivity of the verb creating a
distance between the verb and its
arguments.
THE FORM OF
PREPOSITIONS
• If certain noun phrases are
precedes or followed by a
preposition, there may be
only one possible option
THE FORM OF PREPOSITIONS
• Sometimes, noun phrases are 
both preceded and followed by a 
preposition to form
  multiword clusters.
THE FORM Of PREPOSITIONS
• Sometimes, prepositions
are employed in
compounding to deliver an
idiomatic or cultural
meaning LEXICAL
COMPOUNDING
Deletion of Prepositions
• Can Prepositions be deleted?
Yes, SOMETIMES!
• Optional instances
• Obligatory instances
OPTIONAL DELETION OF PREPOSITIONS

•When the preposition for 
expresses a span of time
OPTIONAL DELETION OF PREPOSITIONS

• When the preposition on is used before 
days of the week
• When the day is used alone or when the 
day modifies another temporal noun such 
as morning, afternoon, and night.
OPTIONAL DELETION OF PREPOSITIONS
• In responses to questions that would cue 
temporal use of 

in,  at,  on,  or for
OBLIGATORY DELETION OF 
PREPOSITIONS
• When you already used last, next, 
this, or
• When the NP contains before, after, 
next, last 
or this.
OBLIGATORY DELETION OF 
PREPOSITIONS
• When the temporal noun phrase 
contains a universal quantifier like 
every and all.
OBLIGATORY DELETION OF 
PREPOSITIONS
• When a locative noun (home, 
downtown), or 
pro-adverbs (here, there) are used 
with a verb of motion or direction.
The Meaning of Prepositions (2 of 3)
• Understanding, Using and Teaching 
Prepositions
THE MEANING OF PREPOSITIONS

• Taylor, 1993 says that preps are 
generally polysemous
• the coexistence of many possible 
meanings for a word or phrase
LOCATING OBJECTS IN SPACE
Locating space involves two or more entities
• Trajector N / NP
• Landmark goal / objective / area
• Basic Place Prepositions
At
On
In
• LOCATING OBJECTS IN SPACE
• AT
• Denotes place as a point of 
orientation
LOCATING OBJECTS IN SPACE
• ON
• Denotes physical contact 
between trajector and 
landmark (one/two 
dimensional space or surface
LOCATING OBJECTS IN SPACE
• IN
• Denotes enclosure of the 
trajector

Driven, 1993 
LOCATING OBJECTS IN SPACE

• By and with are proximity 
prepositions which 
are adjacent to at because 
they locate the trajector in 
relation to the point of 
orientation.
LOCATING OBJECTS IN SPACE

• Through and about require 
a landmark to be seen as a 
surface or a volume and 
are therefore positioned 
next to in.
MEANING EXTENSIONS OF SPATIAL PREPOSITIONS
• The extensions of meanings of prepositions from 
physical space via time into more abstract 
domains do not occur in any haphazard way, but 
follow a path of gradually increasing 
abstractions, whereby the link with each prior 
meaning remains obvious and may acount for 
most, if not all, co-occurrence restrictions 
between trajector and landmark. (Driven, 1993)
MEANING EXTENSIONS OF SPATIAL 
PREPOSITIONS
• The 7 meanings of at

Lakoff, 1987
Lakoff shows how the central sense of 
over combining the elements of above 
and across can be depicted in an image 
schema 
MEANING EXTENSIONS OF 
SPATIAL PREPOSITIONS
• Central Schema to 
Prototypical Meanings
MEANINGS OF NON-SPATIAL 
PREPOSITIONS
• The meanings of of
• Generally, the preposition of 
does not denote space, but 
are mostly used for other 
relevant purposes
The Use of Prepositions (3 of 3)
• Understanding, Using and 
Teaching Prepositions
VARIATIONS IN USE
TEACHING PREPOSITIONS IN THE 
WORKPLACE 
(Explaining a Bill) 

TEACHING PREPOSITIONS IN THE 
WORKPLACE (Helping 
Mrs. Jones) 
Conclusion
• It is critical that teachers analyze preposition 
through a TRIDIMENSIONAL approach 
focusing on
• FORM
• MEANING
• USE
Prepositions
• Understanding, Using and Teaching 
Prepositions
• Prepared by
• By Orly Agawin
• Master of Arts in Education major in English 
Language Teaching
• Philippine Normal University - Manila
THANK YOU!