Download HELP Yourself Resource Transcript: Prepositions Common

Griffith English Language Institute
HELP Yourself Resource Transcript: Prepositions
This video is a short introduction to prepositions and their use in English. We will look at
common prepositions, multiple and overlapping meanings, phrasal verbs, and tips for improving
your understanding and use of prepositions.
Common prepositions
Prepositions are words that show the relationship between other parts of a sentence. As you
probably know, prepositions are words like in, from, of, for, and by. They are usually short
words, but there are a few longer ones such as throughout, alongside, and regarding. There are
also multi-word prepositions such as due to, in regards to, because of, apart from, and except
for. In fact, there are over one hundred prepositions in English and you can find a complete list
of them by searching in a good grammar book.
The easiest and most common prepositions refer to time or place. You probably know these
already. ‘At’, ‘on’, ‘in’ and ‘by’ are very common when referring to time, for example:
The assignment is due at 5pm on Wednesday.
The assignment is due by the tutorial in Week 6.
Prepositions can also refer to something’s location or movement. For example:
The teacher sat behind the desk.
The water flowed out of the tap.
There are many other types of prepositions that refer to a relationship between the elements of
a sentence. Take a look at this example paragraph from an academic journal article. How many
prepositions can you find?
1
Griffith English Language Institute
The prepositions are now highlighted on the screen. As you can see, they are quite common.
Multiple and overlapping meanings
Prepositions can be challenging. One reason for this is because the same word often has
several meanings or functions. For example, if you look up the word by in your dictionary, you
will see nine or more different definitions and examples, as per the examples on your screen.
The best way to learn all these different meanings is to see them used in context.
Another cause for confusion when using prepositions is that their meanings often overlap. When
you compare the definitions of through with those of by, for example, you can see that some of
the meanings are very similar. Which one to choose sometimes depends on its usage in the
context. ‘Usage’ means the way we typically use language and often depends on common
collocations such as the ones on your screen now. It is not necessarily about following
grammatical rules.
Phrasal verbs
You may have noticed that verbs are often accompanied by prepositions. Some of these are
referred to as ‘phrasal verbs’, such as:
wake up
hand in
take after
back out
put up with
You can find a list of phrasal verbs online or in a good grammar book. Phrasal verbs sometimes
have a special meaning that is different from the meaning of the individual words by themselves.
For example, even if you know the word ‘take’ and the word ‘after’, you would not be able to
guess the special (or ‘idiomatic’) meaning of the phrasal verb ‘take after’, which means to
resemble an older relative in appearance or character.
Another example is ‘look up’. Although this can literally mean to ‘look up’ (for example, ‘the girl
looked up at the plane flying past’), it can also mean something quite different. If we say ‘I
looked it up in the dictionary’, we are not literally looking upwards. In fact, ‘look up’ also means
to search for something in a reference book. The verb ‘look’ actually has many phrasal verbs
associated with it. Each one has a different meaning and some of them are not literal.
2
Griffith English Language Institute
It is important to note that phrasal verbs are very common in spoken English but much less
common in formal academic writing. In speech, we might say the phrasal verb ‘put up with’ but
the verb ‘tolerate’ would be more appropriate in academic or professional writing. Likewise, we
might say ‘hand in an assignment’, it might be better to write ‘submit an assignment’. Make sure
you consider a text’s level of formality and context before you use a phrasal verb in your
academic writing.
Tips
One rule that you do sometimes hear - and maybe you’ve learned it - was that you should never
end a sentence with a preposition. This is a myth. In fact, it is acceptable - and common - to
finish a sentence with a preposition as these examples show. Here is an example with the
preposition in two different places. Both are perfectly correct and we could choose to use either
of them.
So, now that we know prepositions can be used in a wide variety of circumstances, we can also
see that there is not a set of easy grammar rules that you can learn for them. However, there
are a few things that you can do that will improve your understanding of prepositions.
First, because usage and context is important, you should try to notice them in what you read
and hear.
Secondly, when you find a preposition used in a way that you have not seen before, make a
note of how it is used, its meaning in this context, and the words that it is used with. Then, try to
use it again in the same way.
Lastly, buy a good English-only dictionary. A good dictionary is essential to understanding how
prepositions work. Translation dictionaries (that is, from your language to English) don’t always
give enough information or enough examples.
This video has given you a short introduction to prepositions. Although prepositions can be
tricky, awareness and practice will improve your use of them. Work through the other activities
to give yourself some practice.
3