TSL 1024

LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION

PREPOSITIONS
W7 SEM. 2/2016

Prepared by;
Muhaida Akmal Mohamad
CONTENT:
 Simple and complex
 Types of prepositions
- place
- time
- movement and direction
WHAT ARE PREPOSITIONS?
 Prepositions are the words that you use to
specify any particular relationship that exists
between people or objects, or between
people and objects (Seaton, 2009).
 A preposition is defined as a word that
governs nouns or pronouns usually placed in
front of, expressing a relation to another
word or element (Norhazian & Yong, 2011).
 English has a small group of prepositions, of
which some frequently used ones are :
at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, with
about, above, after, against, among,
before, behind, below, beneath, between,
beyond, despite, except, inside, into,
onto, outside, over, under, upon.
(Stageberg, N.C. & Oaks, D.D., 2000)
PREPOSITION:
1. Simple preposition
2. Complex preposition
SIMPLE PREPOSITION
1. Simple prepositions consist of a single word.
2. Examples:
at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, with
about, above, after, against, among,
before, behind, below, beneath,
between, beyond, despite, except,
inside, into, onto, outside, over, under,
upon.
3. Examples of simple preposition used in
sentences:
a) The cat sat on the mat.
b) He walked towards the door.
c) I often go running before breakfast.
d) She will drink anything except cola.
COMPLEX PREPOSITION
1. Complex prepositions consist of two or three-
word combinations acting as a single unit.
2. Many 2-word complex preposition consist of:
adverb + preposition

Examples of two-word combination :

according to due to
along with except for
apart from instead of
because ofprior to
contrary to regardless of
3. Examples of 2-word prepositions used in
sentences:

a) The weather will be great according to

the newspaper.
b) They arrived late because of the heavy
rain.
c) Amir lives close to his work.
d) Aside from Sally, everyone was at the
conference.
3. Three-word combinations often have the
following pattern :
Simple preposition + noun + simple preposition
4. Examples:
in aid of in line with
on behalf of in relation to
in front of with reference to
in accordance with with respect to
in line with by means of
3. Examples of 3-word prepositions used in
sentences:

a) Sally’s desk is in front of mine.

b) In addition to his regular job here, he
works in a store downtown three nights a
week.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS:
There are several types of prepositions:
1. Place
2. Time
3. Movement and direction
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
PLACE
 In general, there are some confusion regarding
the use of ‘ at’, ‘in’ and ‘on’ to indicate
place.
 AT is used when referring to a point and used
for specific addresses.
 IN is used when referring to an enclosed space
and used for the names of land-areas (towns,
counties, states, countries and continents).
 ON is used when referring to a surface and to
designate names of streets, avenues, etc.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
PLACE
 Examples of prepositions of place are :

At In On
(point) (enclosed space) (surface)
At the park In Bangsar On Jalan Bangsar
At the junction In the bedroom On the door
At the front desk In the building On the third floor
At Secret Recipe In the office On the chair
At No. 3 In Kuala Lumpur On the swing

Adapted from Norhazian and Yong (2011)

TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
PLACE
 Examples of sentences:
1. My house is at No. 3, on Jalan Bangsar in
Kuala Lumpur.
2. The picture is hanging on the door in the
bedroom at the house.
3. Please go and get the leaflet at the front
desk in the main office. It is on the chair.
4. Mariana is waiting for you at the park in
Bangsar. She will be on the swing.

Adapted from Norhazian and Yong (2011)

TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
PLACE
 The following examples illustrates the use of
prepositions in standard expressions:
Places At In On
Home At home X X
House X In the house X
Foot X X On foot
Bus/plane X In the bus On the bus
(stationary) (motion)
Car/taxi X In the car / X
taxi
School/ At school/ X X
university university

Adapted from Norhazian and Yong (2011)

TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
PLACE
 Other prepositions of place are:

After Among Behind

Between Next to Beside
Over Above Under
Below In front of
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
TIME
 Prepositions can also be used to show WHEN
something happened.
 The prepositions AT, ON, and IN are used
when:
1. We use AT for specific times.
2. We use ON for specific days and dates and
we also use ON for some special days.
3. We use IN for nonspecific times during a
day, a month, a season, or a year.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
TIME ( AT)
 Examples of AT :
1. I start work at 7.00 a.m.
2. I don’t work at night.
3. Due to an emergency, I went home at
lunchtime.
4. The shop closes at midday.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
TIME ( ON)
 Examples of ON:

1. My birthday is on Monday.
2. We’re having a party on 7th September.

 Examples of ON for special days:

1. My friend will arrive on Christmas day.
2. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary
on New Year’s Day.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
TIME ( IN)
 Examples of IN:
1. In summer it's too hot to work.
2. I started this web site in 1999.
3. She woke up in the night.
4. He is going to France in January.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
TIME
 Other prepositions of time:
1) point in time
on by until up to
since

2) length of time
during in at
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
MOVEMENT
 Prepositions are used to show movement to or
from a place.
 For example:
to, through, across

 We use to show movement with the aim of a

specific destination.
 For example:
I moved to Germany in 1998.
He’s gone to the shops.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
MOVEMENT
 We use through to show movement from one
side of an enclosed space to the other.
 For example :
The train went through the tunnel.

 We use across to show movement from one

side of a surface or line to another.
 For example :
She swam across the river.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS –
MOVEMENT
 Other prepositions of movement:
across along around
away from back to down
into off out of
over round
REFERENCES:
Seaton, A. (2009). Grammar : A course for
students. Dealing with the grammar of words,
sentences and texts. Singapore: Learners
Publishing Pte Ltd.
Stageberg, N.C. and Oaks, D.D. (2000). An
introductory English grammar (5th edition).
Boston, MA: Thomson Learning, Inc.
Norhazian Mat Sapian and Yong Lee Choo (2011).
Language Description 1. Kuala Lumpur : Oxford
Fajar Sdn. Bhd.
Seaton, A. and Ferguson, R. (2010). Grammar
plus. Singapore: Learners Publishing Pte Ltd.