Introducing prepositions and collocations

Warmer

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Kinds of prepositions

While there are many more categories than this, prepositions are often broken down into the following groups:

- prepositions of time

- prepositions of place

- prepositions of movement

- dependent prepositions

What do these different groups of prepositions help us to understand?

Give some examples of these kinds of prepositions.

E.g. I work on Mondays (time)

Start slow and grow

To get a complete understanding of prepositions, we'll go all the way back to elementary topocs with this one, since that's where prepositions of time and place are covered.

This doesn't mean that the language is necessarily easy to master - it just means that it's super high-frequency language. Indeed, most students at B1 level often make mistakes with prepositions of time and place. Something called L1 interference can really get in the way when it comes to using preposotions.

A: I did it in Monday.

B: You mean on Monday.

A: Why do we say on Monday but in April?

Prepositions of time

Match put the words / phrases below into the correct column:

In

At

On

Zero prep

next Sunday

9:00

2 weeks ago

6th May

lunchtime

Easter

the 1980s

January

the morning

Saturday

Tuesday evening

Women's Day

yesterday

Christmas

night

Prepositions with 'when?'

IN

ON

months (in January)

days (on Monday)

years (in 2017)

dates (on 1st January)

seasons (in [the] winter)

1-day holidays (on Women's Day)

parts of the day (in the morning / afternoon / evening [but: at night] )

day + part of day combo (on Tuesday evening)

decades (in the 90s)

on the weekend

AT

Zero preposition

times of the day (9:00)

today

multiple day holidays (at Easter)

yesterday

at the weekend

last / this / next ... week / month / year

at night

__ hours / days / weeks ago

Choose the correct preposition? (Remember: zero preposition is sometimes possible)

01: I last went shopping ___ Saturday.

02: I woke up ___ 8:00 today.

03: I usually do my homework ___ Sunday evenings.

04: I always eat chocolate eggs ___ Easter.

05: I last went to the cinema ___ yesterday.

06: I was celebrating ___ 00:00 ___ 31st December ___ last year.

07: I had an argument with my friend ___ 2 days ago.

08: I'm usually quite busy ___ September.

09: I'm quite active ___ night

10: I love going for a walk ___ the summer.

Activation

What did you do at the weekend?

Are you planning to do anything interesting this summer?

In what decade was the best music / were the best films made?

Where were you at 00:00 on 31st December last year?

What activities do you like doing in (the) winter?

What time do you usually wake up on weekdays? And what about at/on the weekend?

a: in (the wardrobe)

b: in front of (the table)

c: on (the chair)

d: under (the bed)

e: behind (the sofa)

f: between (the windows)

g: opposite (the woman)

h: next to (the armchair)

i: over (the mirror)

What verb should I use?

The most common construction is:

X + be + prepositional phrase

The ghost is in the wardrobe

The ghost is under the bed.

Sometimes, we may want to add a verb for more precise meaning:

The ghost is hiding in the wardrobe.

The ghost is sitting opposite the woman.

When we describe a picture, we often use:

There is / are + sth + prepositional phrase

There is a mirror on the wall

There is a ghost (floating) above the mirror

In some texts, you might find be located or be situated but this is probably more commonly used among L2 users than L1 users.

Use the following constructions to describe what is in picture:

There is a + singular noun + prep. phrase

There is some + uncountable noun + prep. phrase

There are some + plural noun + prep. phrase

One more task for the road

Look around your room and think of some some similar constructions.

Make SIX sentences to describe your surroundings.

FOUR sentences should be TRUE

TWO sentences should be FALSE

Can your partner guess which TWO sentences are FALSE?

Then alternate.

Reflection

You probably had no difficulties at all with today's tasks, but did you learn anything new at all?

This, of course, is just the beginning. In what ways do you think this module will get more difficult?

Are prepositions in your language similar?

Is it really grammar, or is it vocab? Or is it neither? Or is it both?