Hi, there and welcome to a new lesson on problems with prepositions.
In this lesson, we'll explore some common problems with English prepositions like prepositions with transportation.
Prepositions with units of time and placement of prepositions in a sentence.
One big problem with prepositions is between on and in, especially when talking about transportation.
Why do we say, I got on the bus, but I got in a car?
Well, there's actually a pretty simple explanation.
With on, we use it with open spaces and platforms.
But with in, we use it for closed spaces.
Using that logic, we can say, I traveled on a bus or on a plane.
Meaning, a large jetliner or on a ship, even on a space shuttle, on a skateboard.
On a horse or on a bike and on a moped.
Now, let's talk about in using in closed spaces.
We can say, in a car or in a taxi or in a van.
In a rocket.
In a small boat, smaller than a ship.
In a hot air balloon.
In a plane, like a small old fashioned plan and in a helicopter.
Another common problem learners face is prepositions with units of time, especially at, on, and in.
Here is an easy way to remember which one to use.
It's called the ATONIN Pyramid.
At is used with hours, on with days and in with weeks, months, years and decades.
Think of it as the small top part of the pyramid uses at with the small unit of time.
Meaning, hours here, then the middle part is the larger unit of days.
And the largest piece is the largest unit of weeks, months and so on.
For example, we might say at 2 o'clock, at 5 PM, at noon and at midnight.
Or on Tuesday, on my birthday,
on Thanksgiving, On December 7th, 1941.
And in four weeks, in June., in 2020 and in the 1800s.
Here is another part of prepositions that may be confusing.
Placement of prepositional phrases in a sentence.
Prepositional phrases are prepositions with the nouns that go with them.
Prepositional phrases can be adjectives describing a noun or an adverb describing a verb.
So lets say, we have a simple sentence the girl walked, but we want to add some information to it.
We can add in a red dress and in the morning.
We can add the phrases this way.
In a red dress describes the girl and in the morning describes when she walked.
To be clear, place the prepositional phrase next to its noun or verb.
With adverb type prepositions, you can have several in a sentence, but which order is the best order to put them in?
Prepositional phrase of manner comes first, then place.
And lastly, time.
For example, we could use the phrases with a quick step, across a bridge and in the morning.
And then we could add these phrases to our basic sentence, so we get a sentence.
The girl walked with a quick step across a bridge in the morning.
Here is another example.
We could say, I take a class on business at Preston College on Wednesdays.
So, those are just some of the problems with prepositions.
In this lesson, we explored some common problems with prepositions like prepositions with transportation.
Prepositions with units of time and placement of prepositions in a sentence.
