4 Mistakes you’re making with prepositions

There are over 150 prepositions in English, so it’s no surprise that we sometimes mix them up, even though only 70 of them are used on a daily basis in spoken/written English. That’s still a lot of prepositions! Prepositions are essential because they demonstrate the relationship between people, objects, and locations.

This blog post will look at common preposition mistakes:

#1  ‘to’ (for travelling)

Look at these three sentences:

• I’m going to France next week.
• Stella has never been to
• John came back / returned to Paris last night.

Notice the preposition to in all 3 sentences – Many people make the mistake of using in instead. Generally, we use the preposition to with verbs like ‘go’, ‘come’, ‘return’, ‘have / has / had been’ (perfect forms of ‘to be’) to talk about travelling and going to places. Keep in mind that with places like home and words like inside / outside, upstairs / downstairs, we don’t use to:

• Cindy went outside for a cigarette. (not ‘Cindy went to outside for a cigarette.’)
• Mary came back home earlier than usual. (not ‘Mary came back to home earlier than usual.’)

#2 ‘in’ or ‘at’ (for places)

We hear and see many mistakes with these two. However, there’s a trick to remembering them. Notice how “at” is used for a point and “in” is used for inside places.

I’m at work in my office. (work is the point; the office is inside the building)

He’s waiting for you at the cinema. He’s in the lobby, waiting to buy some popcorn. (the cinema is the point; the lobby is inside the cinema)

Common uses of at include the station, the doctor’s, the shop, school, home, work, and university. We often use in for countries and cities, such as Malta, England, Paris, and New York.

#3 Prepositions for comparisons

When we compare people, objects or places, we can use functional word phrases such as ‘…be the same as…’, ‘…be different from…’ and ‘…be similar to…’. Notice the prepositions highlighted in bold.

• This house is the same as the last one.
• My T-shirt is different from
• Everton’s phone is similar to

#4 Misusing ‘of’

A common mistake is ‘It depends of…’. The correct preposition here should be ‘It depends on …’. Try and think of other verbs that take on. Common verbs include focus, rely, work and based.

• It depends on whether I’m tired or not.
• Tonight, I’m going to focus on the vocabulary I learned in class.
• Even though we’re older now, my brother and I still rely on each other.
• The latest movie is based on the last book.

Now that you have a better understanding of prepositions and their uses, if you have any comments, tips, or tricks on how you learn and memorize prepositions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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