BBC Learning English | Ask about English

You are in:Home >Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation > Prepositions ...

Prepositions & prepositional phrases

'as'
Discover the many different grammatical uses of 'as'
'as' and 'like'
Cristina Pinho from Brazil wonders if she has worked 'as' or 'like' a dog
'at', 'in' and 'on': time and place
Roger Woodham answers all your questions about these confusing little words
'at', 'in' and 'on': place
Find out if you are 'in' the bank when you are 'at' the bank.
'at home' or 'home'
Ilham Sarukhanov from Azerbaijan asks why his mother waits 'at home' if he will be late 'home'
'because', 'as', 'since' and 'for'
They can all give reasons, but which two also refer to time?
'beside' or 'besides' and 'toward' or 'towards'?
In these pairs of words, which ones are different in meaning?
'busy with' or 'busy about'
Pierre from Malaysia discovers he can't say he is 'busy about' his work
'but' as a preposition
L S Ng from Singapore finds out what 'but' means in 'All but two of the boys are coming.'
'by' and 'from'
Lilia from Bulgaria asks 'When do we use by and when do we use from?'
'despite', 'in spite of' and 'although'
Find out how these words are used with different sentence structures
during, for, by, until
Roger Woodham answers questions from France and Poland about these prepositions
'for' and 'during'
Roger Woodham explains the subtle, but important, difference between 'for' and 'during'
'for' and 'to'
Alex from Spain confuses these two words when he wants to say why he does something
'good at' or 'good in'?
Lim Chiu Lan from Malaysia doesn't know if we say someone is 'good at English' or 'good in English'
'in' or 'at'?
Anthony from Malta wonders whether he lives 'in Gozo' or 'at Gozo'
'in front of', 'before' and 'across'
M Peres from Brazil would like to know the differences in the use of these words
'like' as verb and preposition
Like many other students, Jose Luis Luque would like to know more about 'like'
'made of' and 'made from'
Why do we say 'paper is made from trees' but 'shirts are made of cotton?
'meet' and 'meet with'
Is there a difference between 'meet' and meet with'? Martin Parrot answers
'off' and 'on'
Tamas from Hungary is confused to find 'we have two weeks off school'
'think of' and 'think about'
Cecile Arnould from Belgium has been thinking about the difference between these two phrases
Time 1: an overview
Learn about the many prepositions used in time expressions
Time 2: 'on', 'in', or 'at' midnight?
Roger Woodham explains which words you can use with different times
Time 3: omitting 'on'
Is it possible to say 'It happened Friday' rather than 'It happened on Friday'?
'under', 'below' and 'beneath'
Cindy from Taiwan asks for a comparison of 'under', 'below' and 'beneath'
'with regard to' and 'regarding'
With regard to these and other words, Roger Woodham talks about focussing attention on a topic

Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation

Syndication Links

Useful links

Feeds