Pre-intermediate prepositions

Warmer: quickfire questions 🔥🔥🔥

What did you do last weekend?

What would you like to do in July?

What don't you like doing in the winter?

What is there on your work desk at home?

What is there on your work desk at home?

Name 5 things in your kitchen.

Name 5 bands / artists that were active in the 1980s.

Name some shops that are near your home.

Have you ever spoken to the people who live directly below / above / next to you?

Where are we?

Prepositons of time - DONE ✅

Prepositions of place - DONE ✅

These two themes are taught at elementary because this language is so high-frequency. It means it's time to move on to the PRE-INTERMEDIATE stuff.

There's nothing much to worry about in today's class - great news!

We're going to look at prepositions of MOVEMENT. If prepositions of time help to tell us WHEN, and prepsitions of place tell us WHERE (location); then what do you think prepositions of movement help to tell us?

Verbs of motion:

Before we get into prepositions of movement, it's useful to do a recap of some verbs of motion. Technically, any combination of VERB OF MOTION + PREPOSITION OF MOVEMENT is possible ... although some of them might sound a little strange.

Make a list of verbs of motion,

e.g. run

Prepositions:

Again, this theme is definitely more VOCAB than it is GRAMMAR. And these prepositions should be fairly well-known to you. Complete the sentences with the right prepositons:

01: She walked ____ / ____ the stairs

02: She ran ____ the street

03: They cycled ____ the bridge

04: He went ____ the shop and said hello

05: A few minutes later, he came ____ the shop

06: On his way home, he walked ____ a bank, a church and a hotel.

07: The train rushed ____ the tunnel

08: The fox jumped ____ the fence.

09: My dear Colin the cockroach crawled ____ my bed (NOT into!!!!!)

10: The wrestler jumped ____ the top rope and delivered an elbow drop.

Getting to the nearest underground station:

So, I go out of my house and walk down the stairs, or I take the lift. Then I go out of my building and turn right and right again. After about 400 metres there is a crossroads. I cross the road there and walk past McDonalds and Alex Fitness. I keep walking straight for another 400 metres until I come to a rail crossing. I cross the track and then cross the main road and turn left.

The road has a natural right turn so I just follow the road. There are a few extra roads along the way which I have to cross, but basically, I just keep walking forward. Near the metro, there is a little football centre, so I walk past that and then I'm at the station.

Think of a place that is in walking distance to your home.

Work with a partner and describe how you get from A to B.

Try to use a variety of prepositions of movement.

That's just the way it is!

Some things in life just are the way they are. We can try to understand or explain why, but often, we simply have to accept them. Sometimes, we might not like that there's no good or clear explanation, but still, we have to just accept that that's the way it is.

Some common examples in life:

If you put a lot of food in your mouth, someone will start a conversation with you.

If you're waiting for a delivery, it will come as soon as you get in the shower.

If it's sunny all week, it'll rain at the weekend.

When you're late, every traffic light is red.

The more you ask your hairdresser not to cut your hair too short, the more likely they are to cut your hair too short.

When you're not trying to impress someone, you're funny, cool and charming. When you're speaking to someone you like, you become a potato.

Now think of your own (preferably funny or tragic) examples

Dependent prepositions:

English, like most languages, has a bunch of that's-just-the-way-it-is rules. Most of our beautiful language can be explained, and you should be suspicious if you have a teacher who tells you 'that's just the way it is' too often (it's what we say when we can't explain a rule), but some rules really do fall into this category. Some rules about articles (go to the park, go to the gym, go to the pub, go to a restaurant) for example and gerunds vs infinitives (agree to do, deny doing) fit into this category. Of course, if you dig deep enough, you might find some rules, but generally it's more practical to tell student 'that's just the way it is.'

Another example is DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS. Many other languages have these too.

In prepositions of place and movement, the preposition has some kind of semantic meaning that can be explained. In prepositions of time, there are some rules that can be learned. Dependent prepositions are 'that's just the way it is.'

Verb + prepositions

01: I hate waiting ___ people.

02: It depends ___ the situation.

03: I don't agree ___ my president.

04: I always ask my friends ___ advice.

05: I would like to invite you ___ my party.

06: In shops, I pay ___ things with my card.

07: I never speak ___ my father ___ politics.

08: I spend a lot of money ___ new clothes.

09: I write ___ my friend every day.

10: I always worry ___ my health.

11: John fell ___ love ___ Mary when they first met.

12: I always think ___ work when I try to sleep.

Adjectives + prepositions

01: I'm afraid ___ the dark.

02: Eating vegetables is good ___ you.

03: London is full ___ tourists in the summer.

04: Rome is famous ___ its architecture.

05: I'm good ___ speaking English.

06: I'm bad ___ dancing.

07: I'm often angry ___ / ___ my students.

08: New York is very different ___ / ___ Los Angeles.

09: I'm not very interested ___ Harry Potter - it's for kids!

10: I'm never rude ___ waiting staff.

11: She's very proud ___ her children.

12: I'm excited ___ my upcoming birthday.

Activation:

Make guesses about your partner and then compare:

01: I think you are afraid of _____

02: You sometimes ask _____ for advice

03: You're proud of _____

04: You hate listening to _____

05: You're not very good at _____

06: Your home town / city is famous for _____

07: You don't think that ____ is very good for you

08: You write to ____ every day.

09: You never agree with _____.

10: In your family, you're very different from/to ____.

Passive learning

We do NOT teach our children in the UK about which prepositions to use. Children learn these subconsciously because they hear English every day.

Many students improve their intuition by reading in English or watching TV shows in English. A good habit is to pay close attention to the language L1 users they use - think about the prepositions that they use, the tenses that they use, the phrasal verbs they use, and so on. Then, when you have a conversation in English, try to remember what you heard and try to recycle this language. This is a very organic and natural way of acquiring new language.

While it's difficult to estimate the total number of verb / noun / adj + dependent prep. constructions, there are probably at least 5,000 of these constructions, and you just can't learn them all.

Discussion

Have you every studied dependent prepositions before?

What are some different approaches that learners can take?

Are these prepositions really that important?

How good are you at analysing L1 users' speech?