CHUYÊN ĐỀ 2

PREPOSITIONS / POSSESSIVE / DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

I. PREPOSTTIONS:
The chart demonstrates some of the most common prepositions of place in English.

Prepositions of Place are used to show the position or location of one thing with
another.

It answers the question "Where?"

Below we have some more examples of Prepositions of Place:

In front of

 A band plays their music in front of an audience.

 The teacher stands in front of the students.
 The man standing in the line in front of me smells bad.
 Teenagers normally squeeze their zits in front of a mirror.

Behind
Behind is the opposite of In front of. It means at the back (part) of something.

 When the teacher writes on the whiteboard, the students are behind him (or
her).
 Who is that person behind the mask?
 I slowly down because there was a police car behind me.

Between
Between normally refers to something in the middle of two objects or things (or
places).

 There are mountains between Chile and Argentina.

 The number 5 is between the number 4 and 6.
 There is a sea (The English Channel) between England and France.

Across From / Opposite

Across from and Opposite mean the same thing. It usually refers to something being in
front of something else BUT there is normally something between them like a street or
table. It is similar to saying that someone (or a place) is on the other side of
something.

 I live across from a supermarket (= it is on the other side of the road)

 The chess players sat opposite each other before they began their game.
(= They are in front of each other and there is a table between them)

Next to / Beside
Next to and Beside mean the same thing. It usually refers to a thing (or person) that is
at the side of another thing.

 At a wedding, the bride stands next to the groom.

 Guards stand next to the entrance of the bank.
 He walked beside me as we went down the street.
 In this part of town there isn't a footpath beside the road so you have to be
careful.

Near / Close to
Near and Close to mean the same thing. It is similar to next to / beside but there is
more of a distance between the two things.
  The receptionist is near the front door.
 This building is near a subway station.
 We couldn't park the car close to the store.
 Our house is close to a supermarket.

On
On means that something is in a position that is physically touching, covering or
attached to something.

 The clock on the wall is slow.

 He put the food on the table.
 I can see a spider on the ceiling.
 We were told not to walk on the grass.

Above / Over
Above and Over have a similar meaning. The both mean "at a higher position than X"
but above normally refers to being directly (vertically) above you.

 Planes normally fly above the clouds.

 There is a ceiling above you.
 There is a halo over my head. ;)
 We put a sun umbrella over the table so we wouldn't get so hot.
 Our neighbors in the apartment above us are really noisy.

Over can also mean: physically covering the surface of something and is often used
with the word All as in All over.

 There’s water all over the floor.

 I accidentally spilled red wine all over the new carpet.

Over is often used as a Preposition of Movement too.

Under / Below
Under and Below have a similar meaning. They mean at a lower level. (Something is
above it).

 Your legs are under the table.

 Monsters live under your bed.
 A river flows under a bridge.
 How long can you stay under the water?
 Miners work below the surface of the Earth.

Sometimes we use the word underneath instead of under and beneath instead of below.
There is no difference in meaning those they are less common nowadays.

Under is often used as a Preposition of Movement too.

PREPOSITIONS OF MOVEMENT

ACROSS / THROUGH
Across is movement from one side of an area, surface, or line to the other side.

I drew a line ACROSS the paper.

 Through is movement from one side of an enclosed space to the other side.

The baseball went THROUGH the window.

Sometimes, either ACROSS or THROUGH can be used for areas:

 We walked across the park.
= We walked through the park.
 They drove across the city.
= They drove through the city.

ALONG / AROUND
Along is to follow a line.
Around is to go in a circular direction around some obstacle.

INTO / OUT OF
Into is to go from outside a space to inside a space.
Out of is to go from inside a space to outside a space.

The cat went into the box. The cat jumped out of the box.
 ONTO / OFF
Onto and off refer to surfaces, differently from into / out of (which refer to enclosed
spaces):
 The dog jumped onto the table.
The dog jumped into the table.
 I took the picture off the wall.
I took the picture out of the wall.

UP / DOWN

Going up the stairs / Going down the stairs

Go up and go down can also be used for “increase” and “decrease,” in addition to
physical movement.
 The price of food has gone up in the past two years.
 The number of children per family has gone down.

OVER / UNDER
To go over is to pass above something.
To go under is to pass below something.

TOWARDS / AWAY FROM

If you go towards something, you get closer to it.
If you go away from something, you get farther away from it.

The dog is running towards me. The boy is running away from me.

BACK TO
“Back to” is movement of return to a place you have been before:
 He went to Italy.
(maybe for the first time)
 He went back to Italy.
(it is the second time, or he is from Italy)
 He went back Italy.
(this form is incorrect)
PREPOSITIONS OF TIME

AT
We use AT with specific times (hour / minutes):

 I get up at 7 o'clock.
 My English class starts at 10am.
 She finishes work at 6.15
 I left the party at midnight.

Midnight (and midday) is a specific hour which is why we use AT.

12am = midnight
12pm = midday / noon
We use AT for a holiday period of two or more days:

 Do you normally get together with your relatives at Christmas?

 Did you eat a lot of chocolate at Easter?

ON
We use ON for specific days and dates:

 I will return it to you on Wednesday.

 They got married on Friday the 13th.
 We get paid on the 20th of every month.
 I drank too much milk on New Year's eve.

Remember that for dates, we use ordinal numbers.

E.g. the First of September (not the one of September)

IN
We use IN for specific months, years, seasons, centuries and lengths of time.

 My birthday is in January. (I don't mention the date, just the month)

 My grandmother was born in 1927.
 The river near my house is dry in Summer.
 The company was founded in the 19th century.
 We need to have this report ready in 15 minutes.

Compare:
The New Zealand National day is in February.
(I don't mention the day - only the month)

The New Zealand National day is on February 6th.

(I mention the day - the order is not important)

The Weekend
Sometimes you will hear AT the weekend and sometimes ON the weekend.
They are both correct. ON the weekend is used in United States.

 Where did you go on the weekend? (American English)

 Where did you go at the weekend? (British English)
We don't use Prepositions
Remember! We do not use at, on, in or the with the following expressions:

 Today, tomorrow, yesterday, this morning, tonight, last, next, every.

Prepositions with Parts of the Day

 OTHER PREPOSITIONS

Preposition Explanation Example

 used to show the origin of  "Where are you from?"

something or someone
 used to show the material of which
from something is made
 used to show a change in the state
of someone or something
"I'm from Italy."
 The desk is made from pine.
 Things went from bad to worse.

 used to show possession, belonging  a friend of mine

or origin  a kilo of apples
 used after words or phrases
of expressing amount, number or
particular unit

 used to show the person or thing  I'm reading some short stories
by that does something: (written) by Chekhov.

 used for showing some methods of  It'd be quicker to get there on foot
travelling / on horse
on  entering a public transport vehicle  get on the train

 entering a car / Taxi  She got in the car and drove fast.
in

 leaving a public transport vehicle  She got off the bus

off

 leaving a closed vehicle,  She got out of the car

out of building...

 used to show measurements or  Their wages were increased by

amounts 12%.
by  travelling (other than walking or  She went by car, by bus, by train
horseriding)

 age  In theory, women can still have

at children at the age of 50.

 on the subject of; connected with  What's that book about?

about
 II. POSSESSIVE

Personal Pronouns Possessive Adjectives Possessive pronouns

(Before Verbs as (After Verbs as (Followed by a noun) (Not followed by a

subjects) objects) noun)
I me My mine
You you Your yours
He him His his
She her her hers
It it Its x
We us Our ours
You you Your yours
They them Their theirs

Possessive with a noun:

1. Possessive with a person
- We use ‘s with one person. We use s’ with two or more people.
BUT we use ‘s with irregular plural nouns.
The men’s tie
The children’s books

- We use ‘s with animals

The dog’s house

NOTE:
This is Jack and Mary’s laptop. (The laptop belongs to both Jack and Mary.)
These are Jack’s and Mary’s laptops. (Jack and Mary have their own laptop.)

2. Possessive with a thing

We don’t usually use ‘s with things, we write of. We can also use of with people.

The legs of the table

A friend of mine

3. The owners
We use ‘s just after one person if the thing belongs to both two people.
That’s Jack and Jame’s bike.

We use ‘s right after each person if each person has his/ her own thing.
Those are Jack’s and Jame’s bikes.
 III. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

This, That, These, Those are called demonstratives and they are used to show the
relative distance between the speaker and the noun.

Demonstrative Pronouns
We use this (singular) and these (plural) to refer to something that is here / near.

Examples:

 This is my car. (singular)

 These are our children. (plural)

We use that (singular) and those (plural) to refer to something that is there / far.

Examples:

 That is our house. (singular)

 Those are my shoes. (plural)

Note that the verb changes (i.e. singular / plural) depending on the pronoun that you
use.

You can also use Demonstrative Pronouns by themselves:

 Did you do that?

 I'd like to buy these?
 Which of those would you like?