[ti:Learning Prepositions]
[al:Ask a Teacher]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2020-11-23]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Kelvin in Ghana about the usage of prepositions in English.
[00:14.12]Dear teacher,
[00:15.57]Please, I would like to know more about prepositions.
[00:20.04]Thank you,
[00:21.09]Kelvin
[00:22.10]I'm happy to answer this question, Kelvin.
[00:25.97]Prepositions are those small words that give additional information about nouns, such as direction, time, location, and possession.
[00:41.02]We can put prepositions into two large groups. 
[00:46.31]In the first group, prepositions tell us about direction, location, time, and relations between people or things. 
[00:58.12]These details are what people first learn when they study prepositions in English. Just a few examples of location and time include:
[01:12.48]on the table.
[01:13.98]under the table.
[01:15.73]by nine in the morning.
[01:18.36]at night.
[01:19.59]Some examples that show relations between people include:
[01:27.00]A friend of mine.
[01:28.32]I worked with him.
[01:30.87]I did it for you.
[01:32.95]The second large group includes common expressions where the preposition sometimes has a less exact meaning. 
[01:44.79]That is why knowing which preposition to use with these expressions becomes more difficult.
[01:53.03]Consider the following two examples. 
[01:56.70]The first is used in British English, the second in American English:
[02:03.12]This house is different to the one I used to live in.
[02:08.11]This house is different from the one I used to live in.
[02:13.21]The two examples mean the same thing.
[02:16.79]And there is no clear reason why we should use one preposition instead of the other.
[02:25.26]Here is another expression where we use one preposition instead of another. We often say:
[02:34.74]The news took me by surprise.
[02:37.90]But we never say:
[02:40.83]The news took me with surprise.
[02:44.90]However, notice that changing the preposition "by" to the preposition "with" does not appear to change the meaning of this expression.
[02:58.99]To someone learning English, one preposition might seem as good a choice as any other for this expression.
[03:09.00]That is why it is easy to make mistakes and sometimes difficult to remember the correct preposition to use.
[03:19.01]So, how can you remember what preposition to use with such expressions?
[03:26.38]Do not try to learn the expression separately from the preposition, and then go back and put the preposition in your memory.
[03:38.95]Instead, try to hear and remember the entire expression as one phrase instead of several words.
[03:49.55]Just as we put numbers into groups of three or four to remember phone numbers, try to think of an expression and its preposition together as one group.
[04:05.54]For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English? We'd like to hear from you. 
[04:13.38]Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com. And please include where you are from in your email, too.
[04:25.90]And that's Ask a Teacher.
[04:29.08]I'm Andrew Smith.