Prepositions Rules with Examples

Prepositions are placed before nouns and pronouns. They show the relationship between the subject and the rest of the sentence. There are more than a hundred prepositions in English. He is a short list of the common one - word prepositions.

PREPOSITIONS
aboard	about	above	across	after	against	along
amid	among	anti	around	as	at	before
behind	below	beneath	beside	besides	between	beyond
but	by	concerning	considering	despite	down	during
except	excepting	excluding	following	for	from	in
inside	into	without	like	minus	near	of
off	on	onto	opposite	outside	over	past
per	plus	regarding	round	save	since	than
through	to	toward	towards	under	underneath	unlike
until	up	upon	versus	via	with	within

Prepositions of Time, Place, Position and Direction
1. 'At' is used

with a definite point of time - she usually gets up at 5 o'clock

with festival - He will come at Holi.

To refer an exact point - He is waiting at the door.

To refer aim - The boy aimed at the dog.

2. 'In' is used

with the parts of the day (be careful to use 'at' with noon), months, seasons and years - She takes a walk in the evening, In summer the weather is warm, He was born in 1999.

With the future tense referring to the period in which action may take place - You must be careful in future.

Refers to larger areas - He lives in Mumbai.

3. 'On' is used

with days and dates - My husband will come on Monday.

His birthday is on second of July

4. 'By' refers tot he latest time at which an action will be over.

The examination will be over by 4pm

5. 'For' is used

With perfect continuous tense showing the duration of action. - I have been living here for three years.

To denote direction - The Prime Minister left for UK

6. 'Since' is used with the point of time when action begins and continues.

He has been absent since last Monday.

7. 'From' refers to

To the starting point of an action - this water came from a spring

To the point of departure - She parted from her relatives.

8. 'Between' is used for two persons or two things

It is a secret between you and me.

9. 'Among' is used with more than two persons or things but before the word starts with a consonant letter.

Divide the sweets among the three girls.

10. 'Amongst' is used with more than two persons or things but before the word starts with a vowel letter.

Divide the sweets amongst us.

11. 'Above' is used for higher than

We are flying above the clouds

12. 'Under' is used for lower than

It is shady under this roof

13. 'Below' is used for lower than

Your marks are below average

The sun seems to go below the horizon

14. 'Over' is used for vertically above

The bedroom is over the dining hall

15. 'Beneath' means a lower position.

The ground beneath is slippery

16. 'To' refers to motion from one place to another

We walked to the river and back

17. 'Towards' refers to a particular direction.

She walked towards the bridge.

18. 'Into' denotes motion towards the inside of something

The cat fell into a ditch

19. 'Against' shows pressure.

He leaned against the wall

20. 'Off' refers to separation.

He fell off his chair unconscious

21. 'Before' is used

To refer timed events - I love to read before going to sleep.

To refer a place - Get off the bust just before the church

Other Prepositions

'About' shows nearness - My mother is about to retire.

'Along' stands for in the same line - The current pass along this wire

'After' refers to sequence - The children came after me.

'Across' means from one side - The dog ran across the road.

'Behind' means at the back of - The moon went behind a cloud.

'Beside' means on the farther side of - I sat beside my son

'Besides' means in addition to - Besides being a politician he is a lawyer

Some special cases
Absolve from blame/ of sin, Admit to hospital, place, class Appear for examination/ at Buy in market, store/at shop

Come/ go by bus, train

Compare with one man's height to another

Compare to one man's height to a building

Deal with somebody/ in goods

Die of disease/ from other causes

Entrust to somebody a job

Entrust some with a job

fill in a form/ with enthusiasm

Inquire into matter/ of person/ about things

Invest with power/ invest in bank

Key of the door/ to a problem

Look at evidence/ for aid

Motive in doing/ for an act

Part from people/ with things

Put out light/ off things

Take up job/ to a hobby

Where prepositions are not used
We don't used prepositions with words and phrases like

This morning

This afternoon

Home

Every week

Last Wednesday

Next year

Certain verbs, nouns and adjectives are followed by particular prepositions

WORDS FOLLOWED BY PREPOSITIONS
Abound with	Abstain from	According to	Accuse of	Accustomed to
Acquaint with	Afflict with	Afraid of	Aim at	Affiliate with/to
Arrive at/in	Agree to/on	Ashamed of	Associate with	Assure of
Approximate to	Averse from/to	Beware of	Bereft of	Belief in
Blink at	Boast of	Break off	Busy with	Best with
Canvass for	Cause of	Charge with	Collide with	Comment on
Comply with	Compliment on	Condole with	Confer on	Congratulate on
Convict of	Correspond with	Credit with	Cure of	Cost of
Debar from	Decide on	Deliberate on	Depart to	Depend on/upon
Delight in	Deprive of	Derive from	Devoid of	Disgusted with
Divide into	Dressed in	Disagree with	Election to	Extent to
Employ in	Emphasis on	Essential to	Endow with	Encroach on
Focus on	Forbid to	Fed up with	Full of	Fritter in
Grapple with	Good at	Guilty of	Gratitude for	Hanker after
Impose on	Identical with	Incur on	Insist on	Indifferent to
Intoxicate with	Infect with	Intrude on	Invest in(bank)	Invest with (power)
Involve in	Investigation of	Jealous of	Jump at	Jeer at
Leave for	Live on(income)	Long for	Lure into	Meddle with
Opinion on	overcome with	Operate on	Plan for	Persist in
Plead for	Pleased with	Prefer to	Prevent from	Priority to
Probe into	Proud of	Prohibit from	Provide with	Repent of
Research on	Resolve in/on	Sail for	Salute with	Satisfied with
Sentence with	Sick of	Side with	Sure of	Sympathise with
Sympathy for	Surprised at	Suspect of	Tamper with	Testify to
Throw at	Trace to	Unequal to	Vie with	Vote for
Wait for	Wish for	Ways for	Wdie of