By David Rose
Happy New Year everyone 🙂
I’m often asked about prepositions, for example: ‘Why are they so complicated?’, ‘What’s the rule?’ and What’s the best way to learn them?’
Well, in a bid to deal with these and other such relevant questions, let’s start with the ‘technical’ definition of a preposition:
“A word used before a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun, connecting it to another word, for example ‘We jumped in the lake’, and ‘She drove slowly down the track”
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus 3rd Edition, Cambridge University PressPossibly interesting, but really not useful in helping you consistently choose the correct ones in your written and spoken English, is it…?
So, now I’d like you to consider my more ‘practical’ definition:
A) Types
How many types are there? Two – variable (e.g. I live inBrussels, I was born in November) and fixed (e.g. it depends on you).
B) Difficulty
Are they ‘easy’? No, even advanced learners of English find prepositions difficult, as a 1:1 translation is usually not possible. One preposition in your native language might have several translations depending on the situation.
C) Rules
Is there one ‘rule’ to help me choose the correct one? No, the only real way to learn them is by heart.
This second definition leads us to two important conclusions: Continue reading
