Using prepositions in English: rules

Prepositions in the sentence are part of the sentence phrase, where they occupy the first position. The preposition phrase necessarily requires a noun after the preposition. The phrase can be supplemented either by a single noun or by a group of dependent words. This nominal part is called the prepositional complement. In addition, prepositions can act as a particle in the composition of a phrasal verb.

The use of prepositions in English in the table

The prepositional phrase can play the role of the time and place circumstance, the complement, the complement of the verb or the adjective, and even the role of the subject. Sometimes prepositions act as a subordinating union for a bundle of the main and secondary proposal. For correct speech (and writing), it is very important to correctly use prepositions in English. The rules given below describe the variants of the behavior of prepositions and prepositional phrases in various situations.

As a circumstance of place

Prepositions can show a physical or abstract direction (location).

• At / at the point;
• In within a certain area;
• On / on the surface;
• In front of;
• Near / near;
• On top of the top;
• Across / through;
• Down / down, etc.

As a matter of time

Prepositions can be used to limit the time intervals ('for', 'during', from ... to / till / until ...) and the definition of points in time relative to each other ('ago', 'before', 'since', 'At', 'after', 'in').

• He's here for a month.
• During the war there were two major victories.
• They have lunchtime from one o'clock till two o'clock / They have a lunch break from one hour to two.
• His frog died a month ago.
• We met before lunch.
• He has lived on the coast since he got involved with it.
• He finished at five o'clock / He finished at five o'clock.
• We must be there after 10:30.
• We'll find out in the next three days.

The use of prepositions in English with dates : with different religious festivals, 'at' is used, with the years put 'in', with the days of the week, special events and usual dates are used 'on'.

• At Christmas / Christmas; At Easter;
• In the year 2015 / in the year 2015; In 2015 / in 2015; In the twenty first sentury;
• On Saturday / on Saturday; On her wedding anniversary / on her wedding anniversary; On the twenty-fourth of October.

The use of prepositions in English with months and seasons : 'in', however, with the dates where the month is indicated first, it is 'on', as with the usual dates, for example, 'on October 24th'.
In October; In November / in October; In November; In autumn / fall.

As a subject

The prepositional phrase can perform the functions of the subject: Outside of memory, it was the safest place to store this information.

As an addition to a nominal predicate

In a compound nominal predicate, where the nominal part is expressed by a sign or state, some adjectives that follow the verb-ligament can be used both with the preposition and without it, and some are not used alone.

• He was afraid. He was afraid.
• He was afraid of his enemies.

1. In doing so, they may require some specific pretext, such as: / aware of, accustomed to, used to /.

• Jeremy used to live in the merchant's house.
• He is unaccustomed to the heat. He is not fit for heat.

2. Some adjectives may be alone or accompanied by different pretexts, depending on the type of information they open. For example, with / cruel, friendly, unkind / for associating an impersonal subject and a logical subject, use 'of':

• It was rude of him to leave so suddenly.

To connect a personal subject and an addition, put 'to':

• She was rude to him for no reason.

Also singly or with the pretext 'about' in order to characterize the thing, or 'with' to characterize the character, use: / angry, furious, happy /.

• / She was still angry because of the result.
• / Are you happy with this awkward guy?

3. Other adjectives can be used singly or with some specific pretexts.

• For example, with 'of', to:

1) describe the cause of the feeling expressed by the adjectives / convinced, suspicious, terrified /;

Is not it a bit suspicious?
It was terrified of her.

2) name a character who has a quality (such as, for example, / clever, polite, stupid /).

- That was clever of you! / Clever of you!
I refused the job, which was stupid of me.

• With 'to', to say about the degree of similarity (close, related, similar), marriage (married, engaged), loyalty (dedicated, devoted, loyal), rank (junior, senior) in relation to anything:

My problems are very similar to yours.
He was devoted to his work.

• With the preposition 'with', adjectives such as / bored, pleased, satisfied /, and also to say the reason for the expressed feeling:

- Gave to him a glorious glance she threw him a victorious look, she was satisfied with the effect.
He was pleased with her.

• With 'at', speaking of a strong reaction to something (amazed, astonished, surprised) or potential (bad, good, useless):

He was brought to a stupor by this circumstance.
He was not bad at all in dancing.

• With the preposition 'for' to say about the character or thing to which the given characteristic refers (common, easy, unusual):

It's common for them. It's common for them.
Oh, nothing is easier for me.

• A small part of the adjectives ending in 'ed', which are used exclusively after such verbs as 'be', 'become' or 'feel', have a commonality with transitive verbs, and often follow the sentence:

The Brazilians are pleased with the results.

As an addition to a simple or verbal predicate

1. The use of prepositions in English is natural for many verbs that are used without direct additions. To say:

• About the subject of what is happening, comes up with 'about',
• About the direction of action - 'at',
• Root cause or purpose - 'for',
• Involvement - 'into',
• Facts and information - 'of',
• About what you can rely on - 'on',
• About the information receiver -'to ',
• About who agrees / disagrees, is 'with'.

I heard about the plans for the capture.
Look at me.
They asked for help.
Sheep ran into the doorway.
- To think of it ... / If you think ...
It depends on him.
Explain to me. Explain to me.
- I argue with nobody / I do not argue with anyone.

In this case, it should be taken into account that with some verbs, the prepositions appear in the standard tandem, and with some they can change each other depending on the meaning and situation.

As a complement to a noun

The use of prepositions in English makes it possible to formulate phrases with nouns, which more fully reveal their meaning. Some words are undemanding to the pretext that follows them, and some always attach a specific one. In general, the sentence is after the noun.

/ Two girls who had a weekend, had fun in the pool.
A whisper behind her made her turn around.

Often, for the transmission of various types of information after the noun, 'of' is used, in particular, to say:

• From which something is made or consists;

Wall of stone.
A feeling of panic grew in him.

• About what is a conversation, text, or image;

- There was an image of a lion in the magazine.

• The belonging of the character or the object or its connection;

He was the son of a good man.
/ Girls sat on the back seat of the car.

• About the qualities inherent in the character or the subject.

She was an energetic and ambitious woman.
- They faced problems of great compexity / They came face to face with problems of extreme complexity.

After nouns associated with actions, 'of' is used to denote a subject or object of action.

The arrival of the police.
- ... the destruction of their city.

Following the nouns that display people performing a certain action, the sentence phrase, starting with 'of', tells what includes the action, or about its purposes.

Supporters of hunger strike.
- ... a student of English / an English student.

In this case, the most natural sound is a word combination with two nouns, than with a noun and a sentence phrase, for example, 'bank robbers' instead of 'robbers of the bank'.

Following the words denoting dimensions, the preposition 'of' helps to share specific indicators:

- ... temperature in the pot of 108 degrees.
- part of 30 percent.

Also 'of' can be used after the noun to inform someone's age:

The most dangerous thing is in the age of eight.

The preposition 'with' is used to express some distinctive feature, detail, belonging to an object or character:

A girl with red hair.
The man with the gun.

Standing after the noun preposition 'in' allows you to talk about who is wearing what / what is wearing:

- ... a pale child in a raincoat / a gray-haired man in a raincoat.
The man in a dark suit.

Some nouns are always accompanied by specific pretexts. For example,

• 'To' follows the words: answer, introdaction, reaction, return:

/ It happened on the way back to Poland.

• 'For' follows: reason, respect, taste:

His need for food grew steadily.

• 'On' for: agreement, comment, effect:

She had a disgusting effect on me.

• 'With' or 'between' for: connection, contact, link:

The connection between them was so hard to see.

• 'In' follows the words: difficulty, fall, increase:

/ They were not prepared for the difficulties on this side.

As a verb complement

The use of prepositions in English as a part of prepositional phrases is permissible, in addition, in the nominal predicate in the role of a nominal part:

It's in her bag. It's in her bag.
He was in danger.
It was against his will.

As a particle of a phrasal verb

Prepositions can be represented as inseparable particles of the verb phrase in four combinations:

• A verb-particle,
• Verb-particle-complement,
• The verb-complement-particle,
• The verb-particle-preposition-complement,
• Verb-complement-particle-prepositional phrase.

- Storm broke up at midnight. The storm broke out at midnight.
His faith grows on false beliefs.
"Call me back, said Lucy." "Call me back," Lucy said.
/ They ran away with all our food.
Do not try to talk them out of it.

As a complement to the adjective

Although the sign, as a rule, goes to the noun, in some cases the use of prepositions in English allows you to put the adjective after, while it is usually accompanied by a circumstance, a 'to'-infinitive secondary sentence or - a prepositional phrase.

This is a warning to people who are greedy for a quick profit.

After an excellent degree of adjectives, a prepositional phrase can be used to denote the group from which the subject stands out:

Henry was the biggest of them.
Cakes must be the best in the world.
He was the most dangerous man in the country.

As a union in a complex sentence

Some of the prepositions have the same form as the unions used to join the secondary sentences, for example, / since, 'till', 'until', 'after', 'before' /.

I've been on the lookout for new prospects since I learned about it.