We say we are at the hospital seeing someone who is in the hospital. We lie in bed but on the couch. We watch a movie at the theater but on television. So, you need to learn the prepositions by looking them up in a dictionary, reading a lot of texts in English, and learning useful phrases with prepositions.

Prepositions are categorized into three main groups based on the number of words they are made of:

Simple prepositions are made of only one word, while compound prepositions are made of two or more words. And complex prepositions are formed when two or more prepositions follow each other. Pay attention to the examples:

There are different types of prepositions in English that are all frequently used. Check out the list:

If we want to refer to the direction of something, we use a preposition such as 'to', 'in', 'across,' 'on', and 'along'.

If we want to refer to a point in time, we use prepositions such as 'in', 'at', and 'on'. Furthermore, we can use prepositions like 'since,' 'for', 'by', 'during', 'from...to', to refer to a period of time. Take a look at the examples:

Prepositions of place answer the question 'Where?'. They are used to show the position or location of a thing or person in relation to another thing or person. Prepositions such as 'at', 'in', 'on', 'behind', 'under' and 'above' are some examples of this category. For example:

Prepositions of manner express the way something happens or how a certain thing happened or is done. They may express the method or instrument by which something is done; these prepositions include by, with, like, as, and in. Check out the examples.

Participle prepositions are prepositions that end in '-ed', '-ing', '-en', etc. Excluding, including, following, considering, and regarding are examples of participle prepositions. Here are a few examples in sentences:

A group of words that consist of a preposition and a noun or pronoun (object of the preposition) is considered a prepositional phrase. As you know, a phrase does not have a verb or a subject, as a result, it does not form a complete sentence; rather, it is used to complete the meaning of the sentence. Rather than trying to guess which preposition to use with a noun, it can be helpful to memorize common prepositional phrases. Take a look at some examples:

While some strict grammarians believe it is incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition, it is now generally considered acceptable in modern English. For example:

We are not allowed to use prepositions before or after certain word classes. Check out the table for more details:

Prepositions are used before prepositional objects to indicate a particular concept such as time, place, etc. Here are the most important categories of prepositions.