Prepositions of place

The common place prepositions are: at, on and in.

I met him at the library.
He stood at the gate/door.
He sat at the table.
She put the basket on the table.
The cat is on the roof.
The lion is in the cage.
I live in Mumbai.

At can be used before specific addresses.

Are you still at the same address?

On can be used before streets, roads, avenues etc.

He lives on MG Road.

In is used before the names of large land areas such as cities, big towns, countries, states, continents etc. At is used before the names of small land-areas.

Compare:

She is in the US.
She is at the library.

Prepositions of Time

Common time prepositions are on, in and at.

At is used for a point of time, mainly clock time.

We will meet you at 5 o’ clock.
The meeting began at 2 am.

At can be used for holiday periods (e.g. at Christmas, at Easter, at Thanksgiving etc.). It is also used before time phrases such as at night, at that time, at an early date etc.

On is used for days and dates. Examples are: on Sunday, on second October, or on October second. In is used with the names of months and years. It can also be used with morning, afternoon and evening.

He was born in January.
He was born on a Wednesday.
He was born on 18th October.
I get up early in the morning.

The prepositions for, from and during indicate duration.

I worked here for two years.
I stayed there from May to July.
The sun shines during the day.

The prepositions before, after, since, until/till etc. are used with points of time.

He left home before 9 am.
I have been waiting since morning.
We waited till he returns.

Some other time prepositions are: between, by, up to, through, towards etc.

The meeting will be held between 4 am and 6 am.
By that time they were fully exhausted.
He worked through the night.
It is five minutes to ten.

1.    Simple prepositions
2.    Compound prepositions
3.    Double prepositions
4.    Participle prepositions
5.    Phrase prepositions

Simple Prepositions

Simple prepositions are words like in, on, at, about, over, under, off, of, for, to etc.

She sat on the sofa.
He is going to the market.
He fell off the ladder.
There is some water in the bottle.
She is about seven.
They sat around the table.
The cat was hiding under the bed.

Compound prepositions

Compound prepositions are words like without, within, inside, outside, into, beneath, below, behind, between etc.

He fell into the river.
She sat between her kids.
He sat beside her.
There is nothing inside the jar.
The teacher stood behind the desk.
The boy ran across the road.

Double prepositions

Double prepositions are words like outside of, out of, from behind, from beneath etc.

Suddenly he emerged from behind the curtain.
He walked out of the compound.

Participle prepositions
Participle prepositions are words like concerning, notwithstanding, pending, considering etc.

There was little chance of success, notwithstanding they decided to go ahead.
You did the job well, considering your age and inexperience.

Phrase prepositions
Phrase prepositions are phrases like because of, by means of, with regard to, on behalf of, instead of, on account of, in opposition to, for the sake of etc.

I am standing here on behalf of my friends and colleagues.
The match was cancelled because of the rain.
He succeeded by means of perseverance.

Prepositions and Adverbs

There are some words which can be used both as prepositions and as adverbs. If a word is used as a preposition it will have a noun or pronoun as its object. Adverbs, on the other hand, do not have objects. They are used to modify a verb, adjective or another adverb.

Compare:

She sat in the armchair. (In – preposition; armchair – object)
Please come in. (In – adverb; no object)
He stood before me. (Before – preposition; object – me)
I have seen him before. (Before – adverb; no object)
She put the book on the table. (On – preposition; object – the table)
Let’s move on. (On – adverb; no object)
He will return after a month. (After – preposition; object – a month)
He came soon after. (After – adverb; no object)