a bite of prepositions

POSITION PREPOSITIONS

English prepositions are famous for being difficult. In fact, they are, but prepositions are difficult in all languages. The reason is that they are linking words and they have several meanings. Their use, in any case, is not completely capricious, and if it is, we’ll find the same in other languages. Students of English, for example, complain about “somebody being on the phone”, but we must remember that in Spanish “alguien está al teléphono” must sound terrible to an English speaker. In this particular case, English favours a preposition that takes into account position on a surface, while Spanish favours one that points at the location of something or somebody (meaning 7 in in the RAE dictionary –Real Academia Española de la Lengua). So far, there is no problem. The problem comes when the prepositions have other meanings. For instance, in Spanish “a” is also used to show direction or destination, which implies a verb of movement and would be equivalent to English preposition “to”.

Our intention here is to reduce the meaning of prepositions to those of place following A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolf Quirk et al. And from these meanings of place try to explain other meanings (time, for instance) in a logical way. Of course we are not to deal with prepositional verbs or collocations.

This Monday let us concentrate on prepositions of position, which are:

at – on – in used when something is in close relation with something else

and

away from – off – out of used when something is not in close relation with something else.

Notice, very important, that these are position preposition, which means they should not be used with verbs of movements from/towards (for instance “go”) but verbs that show a stable position of somebody /something in relation to something else. For example, you go to the birthday party (not go at* the party) but you are at the birthday party and you drink at the birthday party and you dance at birthday the party and you can even make a fool of yourself at the birthday party. Your relation with the birthday party is always the same: you are there. Of course there are other possibilities, but with a different meaning from that of position. For example They catered the drinks for the party / she left sometime during the party / etc.

Why at and not in? Because party is something small, let us say, within something bigger: house, city, country.

Why at and not on? Because you simply cannot be on the party. Can you imagine? Maybe if you were superman and you could fly and be…. but then again no because you wouldn’t touch the party, it’d be impossible and you would be…. (watch out, here comes another prepo but we’ll see it on the Monday prepositions): over.

Notice, also, the opposites:    at ⟺  away from

                                               on ⟺ off

                                               in  ⟺ out of

😦The meanings graphically

See the result of same position prepo (preposition) in reference to the same place: "a door". Depending on the prepo you use it might result in a drama.

Where's the man?   😃

But, imagine you say: on the door    😕

An what about: in the door  😲

He'd definitely be in trouble in there.

But check the following

on ≠  in

                                    and both right

      

on the window      →  The frost made patterns on the window.

                                    meaning the "windowpane"

 → The children played noughts and crosses

      on the steamed up window.

      meaning the "windowpane" again

BUT also possible:

 

in the window       → A face appeared in the window/mirror.

                                   meaning "within limits of window frame"

Quite often 

the prepo depends on what you want to say

In the exercises below, fill in the gaps with the right preposition depending on the relation between the object and its location.

1.  You'll find our house ...... the end of the next street. (notice: "end" refers to an exact place; not a volume, not a surface.
2. It is strictly forbidden to park ...... the middle of the street. (notice: "middle" implies you're surround by things and treated like a volume)
3. I could see a Picasso ...... the wall and a Rodin ...... a stand ...... the corner. (notice: "wall"=surface; "stand"=surface; "corner"=place surround by two walls)
4. There were stains of damp ...... the ceiling. (is "ceiling" a volume, a surface or a dot?)
5. There's a ruined castle ...... the hill, and another ...... the valley. ("hill"=surface; ·"valley"=place surrounded by mountains)
6. You can read it ...... the text ...... page 45; ...... line 12. ("text" like a volume; "page"= surface; "line"=many words, so like a volume)
7. The train arrives...... Waterloo ...... 6.30. (Railway station=exact place; "time"=exact, like exact place)
8. You'll find it much more expensive living ...... London than ...... the country. ("London"= big place, volume; "country"=big place, you're surrounded, volume)
9. She met him ...... the front door and told him to wipe his shoes ...... the doormat before coming into the house. ("door"=exact place; "doormat"= surface)
10. ...... the southern hemisphere the longest day falls ...... December. ("hemisphere"=big area; "December" a long period of time, not exact)
11. But ...... the North Pole the sun never rises ...... that day. ("North Pole"= exact place; "day"=short period of time, treated like a surface)
12. He was lying ...... his back with a shot ...... his head.  ("back"=surface; "head"=inside, volume)
13. Why is it she prefers to sit ...... the back of the class? ("back"=exact place and extreme -opposite:"front")
14. She lives ...... the 15^th floor ...... a soaring building ...... the end of the street. ("floor"=surface; "building=volume; "end"=precise location)
15. We live ...... 24 Oak St. ...... the old side of town. (exact address; "side": one side/another side= like surface).
16. I'll meet you ..... five days ..... the crossing with High Street. I'll be sitting ..... the bench there. ("five days"=period, like volume; "crossing"=exact place; "bench"= surface).
17. I met him only ...... one occasion ...... the Golf Club ...... Madrid. ("occasion"=like surface, day; "Golf Club"=exact place; "Madrid"=big place)
18. I moved out here back ..... 1989 ; since them, I've been living ..... this farm. ("a year"=long period, like volume; "farm"=surface).
19. They arrived ..... Chicago ...... Christmas day. ("Chicago"=big place and "arrive" = end of movement; "Christmas day"= particular day treated like a surface)
20. ...... that Saturday evening they found the car ...... a ditch ...... the other side of town. ("Saturday evening"=particular evening, treated like a surface; "ditch"= volume; "side"=see exercise 15)

KEY

1. at
2. in
3. on - on - in
4. on
5. on - in
6. in - on - in
7. at - at
8. in - in
9. at - on
10. In - in
11. at - on
12. on - in
13. at
14. on - in - at
15. at - on
16. in - at - on
17. on - at - in
18. in - on
19. in - on
20. On - in - on