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, there is no single, fixed rule that governs their use. In order to learn the permissible collocations, you need to look them up in a dictionary, read a lot of texts in English, and learn useful phrases with prepositions.

Prepositions are categorized into two 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 . Here are some 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:

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

Prepositions such as 'in', 'at', and 'on' answer the question 'when?' and refer to a point in time. Furthermore, we can use prepositions like 'since,' 'for', 'by', 'during', 'from...to', to refer to a period of time and answer the question 'how long?.' 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:

If we want to refer to the direction of movement, or specify the destination or origin of the movement, we use prepositions such as 'to', 'into', 'across,' 'on', and 'along'.

Prepositions of manner show how something happened or was 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.

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. Take a look at some examples:

Prepositions generally come before, or less commonly after nouns to establish a connection between them and the other elements of the sentence. However, in some cases, preposition stranding might happen, where the preposition is separated from its object and appears at the end of the clause. Preposition stranding mainly occurs in questions and relative clauses. 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:

Prepositions cannot appear before or after certain word classes. Check out the table for more details: