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Hi, I’m Niamh and welcome to Oxford Online
English.
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In this lesson, we’re going to look at the
prepositions to, in and at.
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Have you ever asked yourself why there don’t
seem to be any rules for prepositions in English?
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If you have problems with these small words,
don’t worry; you’re not the only one!
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A good way to understand and learn the difference
between prepositions is to look at them in
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groups. That way you can compare and contrast
them.
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We’re going to look at to, in and at together
because they can be used to talk about place.
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First, look at a picture:
Listen to three sentences. Which one fits
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the picture?
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I’m driving to the airport.
I’m at the airport.
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I’m in the airport.
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Which sentence fits?
The first one: I’m driving to the airport.
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A good way to understand English prepositions
is to look at the words that go before and
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after them.
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Which words go before and after the preposition
to?
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For example, which verb comes before to in
our sample sentence?
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The verb drive. Drive is a verb of movement.
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To expresses movement, so before to, we need
a verb that expresses movement.
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So, let’s think: can you think of any other
verbs which express movement?
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Go is an obvious example.
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Maybe you also thought of verbs like run,
walk or come.
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For example:
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He ran to end of the road,
We walk to school every day.
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Do you want to come to my house for dinner?
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These verbs are all about people and how they
move.
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You can also move things.
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For example:
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He sent a letter to France.
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Can you think of any more verbs related to
moving things?
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Good examples are take or move, but there
are many more.
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For example:
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I took my bike to the shop to get it repaired.
We moved the sofa to the other side of the
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room.
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I have another tip for you. You can also use
to after nouns that express movement.
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What do I mean by that?
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What’s the missing word in this sentence?
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I’m planning a ---- to China this summer.
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Do you know?
The missing word is trip.
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I’m planning a trip to China this summer.
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Can you think of any other nouns like trip,
where you can use to after the noun?
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You can also use to after nouns like holiday,
invitation or way.
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For example:
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We went on holiday to Egypt last year.
They sent us an invitation to their housewarming
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party.
Do you know the way to the botanical gardens?
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There is an exception to these rules. Do you
know what it is? It’s with a very common
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word, which I’m sure you all know.
The place home does not use the preposition
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to.
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You cannot say:
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I’m going to home.
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The correct sentence is:
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I’m going home.
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Also, don’t use to with the pronouns here
or there.
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For example:
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Bring it to here.
Let’s go to there and see what we can find.
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So, now you know how to use to, use to after
verbs or nouns which express movement.
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So, what about in?
How would you describe this picture? There’s
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a woman—where is she?
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You can say:
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She’s in the library.
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Why do you use in?
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You use in to describe being surrounded by
walls or other things.
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Let’s look at some more examples:
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The Empire State Building is in New York.
They stayed in a small town in the south of
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England.
My cousin lives in China.
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Remember, to understand prepositions, you
should look at the words before and after
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the preposition.
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Let’s look at the verbs you can use before
in. You can see the verbs be, stay and live.
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Do these verbs express movement?
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No, they describe states, without movement.
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Can you think of other examples of verbs which
don’t express movement?
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There are many. You could use stand, sleep
or study. For example:
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Why’s he standing in the corner like that?
She was sleeping in the car on the way here.
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Do you prefer to study in your room or in
the library?
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Now let’s look at the nouns.
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All of these nouns: New York, China, a small
town, the corner, the car, your room, the
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library—what connects them?
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They’re all places which surround you.
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You use in for cities, countries and buildings
which you are inside.
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These are direct, physical ways to use in.
Can you think of other things which you can
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use after in?
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You can also use in in more indirect ways.
For example:
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Is that you in the picture?
She works in the finance department.
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I read about it in the newspaper.
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So, use in with verbs which don’t express
movement, like be, stay or live.
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And, use in with places or things which surround
you.
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So, what about at?
Look at some examples with at:
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She wasn’t at the bus stop when the bus
came.
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I’m waiting for you at the end of the road.
We’ll meet you at the subway exit.
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Which verbs can we use with at? We have be,
wait and meet.
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These verbs do not express movement.
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This sounds very similar to in. So, what’s
the difference?
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Let’s look at the words after the preposition.
You have the bus stop, the end of the road,
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and the subway exit.
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Why at the bus stop? Why not in the bus stop?
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You use at for bus stop because you’re not
surrounded by it.
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Think about it: the bus stop could just be
a pole by the road with a sign on it.
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In this case, you can’t be in the bus stop,
right? There’s nothing to be inside.
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Similarly, you say at the end of the road
or at the subway exit because it’s a specific
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place, but you’re not surrounded by anything.
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So, then why do we say things like:
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She’s studying microbiology at university.
I saw it at the cinema.
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We can get something to eat at the supermarket.
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Why do we say at the cinema and not in the
cinema? After all, the cinema is a place which
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surrounds you.
It’s because you use at to talk about why
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you go to a particular place.
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If you say:
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She’s studying microbiology at university.
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You use at because you talk about what she’s
doing at university, and why she’s there.
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She’s there because she’s a student.
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Similarly, if you say:
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I saw it at the cinema.
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What are you talking about? What is ‘it’?
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I hope it’s obvious that ‘it’ is a film!
You say at the cinema because you’re going
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to the cinema to watch a film.
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You’re not focusing on the place as a place;
you’re focusing on why you go there.
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Let’s look at another, slightly different
example:
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Did you meet Anne at the party?
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Okay, what about party? That’s not exactly
a physical location. So, why do you use at?
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You can also use at for events.
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For example:
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He met his wife at a speed metal concert.
There were so many people at the wedding.
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So, like in, you use at to describe where
something is.
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Unlike in, use at to talk about specific places
where you’re not surrounded by anything.
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You can also use at when you want to focus
on why you go to a place, rather than focusing
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on the place as a place.
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Finally, you can use at for events.
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So now we’ve looked at each preposition
individually, let’s compare, and contrast
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them.
Okay, so can you remember the difference between
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to, in and at in English?
To expresses movement. That means you need
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a verb which expresses movement before to,
and a place after to.
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At and in both express where something is.
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There are some places which can only be used
with one preposition. For example:
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Are you still in bed?
There’s still some sauce in the fridge.
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He sat at the end of the table.
What did you do at work today?
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In these cases, you can’t choose. There’s
only one possibility.
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However, sometimes, you can use either at
or in with no difference in meaning:
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I can’t talk right now. I’m in a meeting.
I can’t talk right now. I’m at a meeting.
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Then, sometimes at and in are both possible,
but with slightly different meanings.
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For example:
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I’m at the bank.
I’m in the bank.
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Can you tell the difference?
Now, these two sentences could have the same
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meaning. They aren’t necessarily different.
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However, they could be different. I’m in
the bank focuses on the bank as a physical
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place. Maybe it started raining really hard,
and you just ran into the bank so you wouldn’t
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get wet.
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I’m at the bank focuses on the bank as a
bank. If you say, I’m at the bank, you have
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some banking to do there.
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Let’s see one more example like this:
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We were at Mike’s apartment last night.
We were in Mike’s apartment last night.
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Can you tell the difference this time?
This time, the sentences are definitely different,
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and you probably wouldn’t use one of them!
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We were at Mike’s apartment last night focuses
on why you were there. Why were you there?
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You were visiting Mike, probably. Maybe you
went over to Mike’s for dinner, or something
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like that.
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We were in Mike’s apartment last night focuses
on Mike’s apartment as a place. This suggests
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that you were in Mike’s apartment, but Mike
wasn’t. So, what were you doing there?
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This is why you probably wouldn’t say in
Mike’s apartment.
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I hope some of these rules have helped you
understand the difference between these prepositions.
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I strongly recommend that when you are learning
vocabulary, don’t just learn one word but
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learn the words on either side too.
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For example, if you want to learn the word
bus stop, learn a full phrase, like wait at
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the bus stop. That way it’s easier to remember
the correct preposition.
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If you enjoyed this lesson you can find more
of our free lessons at OxfordOnlineEnglish.com.
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Thanks for watching!14778
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