Important Rules on Preposition and their Usage for SSC Exam

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It is very important to have an understanding of the "Usage of Prepositions" in English Grammar. So, we hope that you will like our post. The notes are helpful for all the upcoming SSC Exams viz. SSC Exams & other competitive Exams.

Preposition & their Usage

• It is strictly between you & me.
• He is going to college now.

A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence and is usually followed by a determiner and/or an adjective, followed by a pronoun or noun. They tell us about the event, taking place in time and place, or tell us when or where or under what circumstances something has happened.

Like in the first sentence “between” is a preposition telling us the relationship of “you” & “me”. While in the second sentence it is “to” telling us the place of the event.

Note: we use preposition at the end of the sentence.

For Example:

With whom are you living?          (Put with after living)

About what are you talking?       (Put about after talking)

But in this also there are some exceptions like in passive voice we say “By whom was it done?”

Some Confusing Prepositions

• AT, ON & IN (When they are referring to a place)

At is used, when we see something as a point in space.

For Example:

• The car was waiting at the lights.
• There's someone at the door.

On is used to refer to a surface.

For Example:

• The book is kept on the table.
• There were lots of pictures on the walls.

In is used, when we see something as all around.

For Example:

• It was cold in the room.
• I’ve a 10 rupees note in my pocket. 

In general we use in for a bigger place like country or town and at for a smaller place.

For Example:

• I arrived at London in England
• I live at Madhusala in Patna.

AT, ON & IN (When they are referring to time)

1. We use at with a particular time such as a clock time or meal time.

For Example:

• at half past five,              
• at breakfast (time),      
• at that time,     
• at the moment

We also use at with periods of two or three days.

For Example:

• at Christmas,   
• at Holi,               
• at the weekend

2. We use on with a single day.

For Example:

• on Tuesday,      
• on 7th August,                
• on that day,      
• on Easter Sunday

3. We use in with longer periods.

For Example:

• in the next few days      
• in the summer holidays                               
• in spring            
• in July                  
• in 1992
• in the 19th century

 We also use in with a part of the day.

For Example:

• in the afternoon,            
• in the morning 

Some very Important Points to remember:

• There is some variation like, On Friday Evening, On Tuesday night.
• There is one exception that is we use at before night like “I will meet you at night.”
• We do not normally use at, on or in phrases of time with last, this, next, every, later, yesterday and tomorrow. Like it is wrong to say “I received your letter on last Friday”. (Remove on)

BETWEEN & AMONG

 Between is used to refer to a small number of items which are separate from each other.

For Example:

• This match is between him and me.
• This triseries is between India, Australia & South Africa.

Among refers to a larger group.

For Example:

• I saw him among the crowd.
• Toffees were distributed among the students.  

Note: 1. Between is followed by objective case of pronoun.

For Example: This match is between him and me.

2. Each/Every cannot be used after between.

For Example: Between Each Boy (It is wrong)

There are 10 millimeters between each centimeters. (Remove Each)

TO & TOWARDS

We use to for a destination and towards for a direction.

For Example:

We're going to Delhi. My grandpa lives there.

We're going towards Delhi now.

DURING & OVER

 We use during with an event (e.g. the festival) or a period which is a definite time (e.g. that week). It means the whole period.

For Example:

• Nobody was working during the festival.
• The letter arrived during the festival.

But we cannot use during + length of time.

For Example: The festival went on during a week. (Replace during with for)

We can also use over for a whole period of time.

For Example:

Over a period of two months there were sudden rise in theft in this area.

FOR & SINCE

We use for + length of time and since + time.

For Example:

• for two years    
• for a week          
• for two days     
• for a few minutes
• since 1990          
• since last week                
• since Monday  
• since half past two

For Example:

• I just want to sit down for five minutes.
• I will stay at your place for a week.
• It has been raining since last Monday.
• I haven't seen you since September.

We do not normally use "for" before a phrase with all or whole.

It rained for the whole day. (Remove For)

 Till/until

We use till/until to say when something finishes. Till is not the contracted form of until. They are usually interchangeable.

For Example:

The government will not pass any bill till/until next session.

I will be working in Germany till/until next April.

We hope the post has cleared all your doubts regarding the topic.