Rules and usage of Most common preposition for competitive Examination

In English Grammar section Preposition plays a vital rule. These are very easy but little bit confusing, these are used before a noun or a pronoun in a sentence to form correlation between them. Questions related to prepositions are generally found in sentence correction, error detection, cloze test etc. Therefore we are providing here some Must read Preposition for your preparation.

Prepositions

Preposition is a kind of word which is used in front of a noun or a pronoun and show the relationship between the noun , pronoun and other words in a sentence.

At/In/On

To/Into: Used as follows

1.Destination:I am going to the office.
2.In the direction of:Turn to the left.
3.Compared with: I prefer tea to coffee.

Until: Used as follows
Example: From Saturday to Tuesday, 10 minutes to eight.
In order to: We went to the market to buy some groceries.

With indirect object
Example:Please give it to me.

To the inside of
Example: He entered into the room.

Change of condition or state
Example: Can you translate this letter into Assamese?
He came into power in 2014.
On/Onto
On can be used for both existing position and movement.

Example: He was sitting on his bag.
Snow fell on the hills

On can also be used as adverb.
Example: Go on.
Come on.

Onto is used to define movement involving change of level.
Example: People climbed onto their roofs.

For/during:
For is used to denote purpose & may also be used before period of time.
Example: He has been working in this office for last five years.
I rented my house for holidays.
For can also be used to preposition of direction or destination.
Example: He is leaving for America tonight.

During:
During is used to represent duration of time.
Example: During the strike, many people died.

Below/Under/Beneath:

Below and under both used to mean lower in level, But under usually denotes physical contact and below denotes space between the things.
Example: He placed the box below the almirah.
He put the book under the pillow.

Below and under may used to define junior in rank.
Example: He is under me, that means I am superior to him.

Another example: Rainfall has been below average this year.

With/By:
With is used for instruments and By is used for agents.
Example: The snake was killed by him with a stick.

Since/ For /From
Since is used for point of time and for is used of period of time.
Example: It has been raining since morning.
He has been living here for last 4 years.

From is used with to or till/until & also used for places.
Example: The employees work from 9 to 5.
Where do you come from?
In/Within:
In means maximum time limit, within means the period up to which the work will be completed.
Example: I will complete the project in a month.
The show will finish within two hours.
Ago/ Before: 
Ago is used for past events while before is used in reference to two events.
Example: The train had left before we reached the station.
I went there two days ago.

Beside/ Besides

Beside means at the side of and besides means in addition to/as well as.
Example: She sat beside me.
He has a scooty besides a bike.

Between/among/amongst

Between is used for two things or persons.
Example: The match will be played between India and Australia.

Note: each ,every never used after between.
Among/amongst is used for more than two things. Either of them can be used if followed by ‘the’
Example: He distributed the packets among/amongst the poor.

Among/Amongst+the+Noun(plural)

Example: Among the boys
There is one difference between them, if followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound amongst be used and if followed by a word beginning with a consonant sound then among be used.
Example: Among them.
                     Among you.
                     Amongst us.

Made of/ Made from
When shape of material is not change made of is used.
Example: A house is made of bricks.
When shape of material is undergone a total change made from is used.
Example: Butter is made from milk.

After/Afterwards:
After must be followed by noun, pronoun,or gerund .
Example: After breakfast, he ordered a taxi.
When we don’t use noun, pronoun or gerund we can use afterwards.
Example: Don’t have a meal or run immediately afterwards.
But/except
After nobody/none /nothing /nowhere etc. usually but is used.
Example:Nobody but Shyam knew the way.
Nothing but the best is sold in our shop.
Except is used When the prepositional phrase comes later in a sentence.
Example: Nobody knew the way except Mukut.

To/Towards
To is used to show movement with the aim of specific destination.
Example: I am going to USA tomorrow.
Are you going to the party?
Towards used to movement in a particular direction.
Example: Everyone sitting in the room turned towards me.

Across/Through/Into
Through refers to movement within a space which can be treated as three-dimensional.
Example: The canal flows through the city center.

Into refers to the movement from the outside to the inside of a three dimensional space.
Example: We got into the back of the car.

Across/Over/Along
Across and over are used to talk about movement from one side of a place to another as two dimensional direction.
1.From one side to another
Example: I swam across the river.
2.Both sides
Example: He threw the luggage across his shoulders.
The bridge was built over the river.
The preposition along is used to show movements following a line.
Example:I followed Mr. Jackson along the corridor.

Preposition omitted

1. Verbs denoting request, command, invitation and advice eg. ask,beg, encourage,order,
recommend, command, remind, request, tell, urge, warn,invitation, can be followed directly
by the person addressed without the use of preposition ‘to’.
Example: I reminded them that there were no trains after 10 pm.
He warned her that the ice was thin.
2. Some transitive verbs don’t take prepositions with them. Such commonly used verbs are
obey, order, combat, benefit, inform, violate, accompany, attack,afford, resemble, resist, reach etc.
Example: He ordered for a cup of tea(incorrect)
He ordered a cup of tea.(correct)
South Korea attacked on North Korea.(incorrect)
South Korea attacked North Korea.(correct)
He informed to me yesterday.(Incorrect)
He informed me yesterday.(correct)

Some other English Notes:

Idiom and Phrases
One word substitution

Happy Reading,

Swapno_shikha