Golden Rules of Prepositions

 

 10 Golden Rules of Prepositions

 

Today, I am  providing you all with "Important Rules on Preposition and their Usage" It is very important to have an understanding of the "Usage of Prepositions" in English Grammar. These notes are helpful for all the upcoming SSC Exams 

Ram  is strictly between you & me. 

She is going to college now.

A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence and is usually followed by a determiner and/or an adjective, followed by a pronoun or noun. They tell us about the event, taking place in time and place, or tell us when or where or under what circumstances something has happened.

Like in the rst sentence “between” is a preposition telling us the relationship of “you” & “me”. While in the second sentence it is “to” telling us the place of the event.

With whom are you living? (Put with after living)

About what are you talking? (Put about after talking)

But in this also there are some exceptions like in passive voice we say “By whom was it done?

Some Confusing Prepositions

AT, ON & IN (When they are referring to a place)

 

At is used, when we see something as a point in space

For Example:

The car was waiting at the lights.

There's someone at the door. 

On is used to refer to a surface. 

For Example:

He puts on the table .

In is used, when we see something as all around.

For Example:

You arrived at London in England. 

He lives at Madhusala in Patna.

AT, ON & IN (When they are referring to time)

1. We use at with a particular time such as clock time or mealtime.

 For Example:

at half-past ve, 

at breakfast (time), 

at that time,

 at the moment

 

We also use at with periods of two or three days. 

For Example:

at Christmas,

 at Holi,

 at the weekend 

2.We use on with a single day.

For Example :

on Tuesday, 

on 7th August, 

on that day

3. We use in with longer periods.

For Example:

in the next few days

 in the summer holidays

 in spring in July in 1992

 in the 19th century

We also use in with a part of the day.

For Example:

in the afternoon,

 in the morning.

Some very Important Points to remember:

There is some variation like, On Friday Evening, On Tuesday night. 

There is one exception that is we use at before night like “I will meet you at night.”

 We do not normally use at, on or in phrases of time with last, this, next, every, later, yesterday and tomorrow.  Like it is wrong to say “I received your letter on last Friday”.

(Remove on)

 BETWEEN & AMONG

Between is used to refer to a small number of items which are separate from each other

For Example:

This match is between him and me. 

This tri-series is between India, Australia & South Africa.

Among refers to a larger group.

 

For Example:

 saw him among the crowd.

Note: 1. Between is followed by the objective case of pronoun

For Example: This match is between him and me.

2. Each/Every cannot be used after between.

For Example: Between Each Boy (It is wrong)

There are 10 millimeters between each centimeters. (Remove Each)

       TO & TOWARDS

We use to for a destination and towards for a direction.

For Example:

We're going to Delhi. My grandpa lives there.

We're going towards Delhi now.

        DURING & OVER

We use during with an event (e.g. the festival) or a period which is a denite time (e.g. that week). It means the whole period.

For Example:

Nobody was working during the festival. 

The letter arrived during the festival.

But we cannot use during + length of time.

For Example: The festival went on during a week. (Replace during with for)

We can also use over for a whole period of time.

For Example:

Over a period of two months, there was a sudden rise in theft in this area.

           FOR & SINCE

We use for + length of time and since + time

For Example:

for two days 

for a few minutes

 since 1990 

since last week

 since Monday

since half past two

For Example:

I just want to sit down for ve minutes.

 I will stay at your place for a week. 

It has been raining since last Monday.

 I haven't seen you since September

We do not normally use "for" before a phrase with all or whole. 

It rained for the whole day. (Remove For)

              Till/until

We use till/until to say when something nishes.

 Till is not the contracted form of until. 

They are usually interchangeable.

For Example:

The government will not pass any bill till/until the next session. 

I will be working in Germany till/until next April. 

We hope the post has cleared all your doubts regarding the to

Thank you .