The Writing Center – Valle Verde
Prepositions
Prepositions are words that indicate belonging, location, direction, or association. Depending on
the type of sentence, prepositions are used in different ways. The following is a list of common
prepositions in English:
About
Above
Across
Against
Along
Beside
Between
Beyond
By
Despite
During
For
From
In
Near
Next
Of
Off
On
Over
Past
Since
Through
Toward
Under
Unlike
Until
Upon
With
Without
Common Prepositional Mistakes
In vs. On
Students often confuse by certain prepositions, especially students who speak English as a second
language. An example of a common error is confusing “on” with “in.” In English both words are
separate concepts. Here are some examples of correct and incorrect usage:
Correct: “The book is on the table.”
Incorrect: “The book is in the table.”
Correct: “Xochitl and Cuauhtémoc are both in love with each other.”
Incorrect: “Xochitl and Cuauhtémoc are both on love with each other.”
“In” indicates being inside of something; lovers are inside a state of love, not on top of it. “On” indicates
being on top of something. A book is placed on top of a table; it would be strange indeed if a book was
placed inside a table.
At vs. To
Similarly, students often confuse “at” and “to.” “At” refers to actually being at a definite location. “To”
indicates only a direction. Here are some examples:
Correct: “They have bananas at the store.”
Incorrect: “They have bananas to the store.”
Correct: “We are driving to Adalina’s house.”
Incorrect: “We are driving at Adalina’s house.”
The Writing Center – Valle Verde
In the first example, the bananas are actually located in the location of the store. There is a concrete
location in the sentence, but there is no directional nature to the sentence. As such, at is not
appropriate.
In the second example, the car is being driven in a specific direction with a final point in mind. The
occupants of the car are not yet at the destination, they are only heading toward it. Here it is
appropriate to use “to,” as they are not yet there. Using “at” would imply that the people in the
example are driving inside, “at” the physical location of the house, which is in most cases preposterous.
By vs. For
“By” and “for” are both small prepositions which are commonly misused. These two words both have
many other uses, but this worksheet will only discuss the words as they relate to each other. In this
context, “by” is used appropriately when indicating responsibility or ownership of something. “For” is
translated correctly when indicating time duration, or when indicating a directional nature of an
intention. Here are a few examples of correct and incorrect usage:
Correct: “The book was written by Saeed because he was a great writer.”
Incorrect: “The book was written for Saeed because he was a great writer”
While both these phrases are grammatically correct, the second example is confusing because “for” is
used. Using “for” in this way implies that someone wrote the book in Saeed’s place so he didn’t have to
write it. This doesn’t make sense because we know Saeed is a great writer. It would make sense for him
to be the one that wrote it, and thus “by” is more appropriate.
Some information courtesy of:
Johnston, Ted and Joe Old. English Beyond the Basics. El Paso: High Sun Publishing, 2014. Print