Make sure you are familiar with your Prepositions !!!!!!!

Prepositions are used in many different ways in English - perhaps that's why a lot of people have problems with them.

First, they are used with time words:
•on Monday
•in the 20th century
•at night
 Second, they are used to show where something or someone is:

•The plate is on the table.
•Julie is in the garden.
•The picture is on the wall.
Third, they are used after some adjectives:

•She is good at tennis.
 •Scotland is famous for whisky
•I'm worried about my new job.
Fourth, they are used after some verbs:

•I'm listening to music.
•She is waiting for her friend.
•He borrows money from his sister.
 Fifth, they are used after some nouns:

•She has trouble with remembering new vocabulary.

Finally, they are used in certain phrases:

•The bus arrived in the end.
•She arrived just in time for the film.
 
Prepositions of time - here's a list of the time word that need 'on', 'in', 'at' and some that don't need any preposition. Be careful - many students of English use 'on' with months (it should be 'in'), or put a prepostion before 'next' when we don't need one.
 

at

•times: at 8pm, at midnight, at 6:30
 •holiday periods: at Christmas, at Easter
 •at night
 •at the weekend
 •at lunchtime, at dinnertime, at breakfast time

on

•days: on Monday, on my birthday, on Christmas Day
  •days + morning / afternoon / evening / night: on Tuesday morning
 •dates: on the 20th of June

in

•years: in 1992, in 2006
 •months: in December, in June
 •decades: in the sixties, in the 1790s
  •centuries: in the 19th century
 •seasons: in winter, in summer
 •in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening

no
prep

•next week, year, month etc
 •last night, year etc
 •this morning, month etc
  •every day, night, years etc
 •today, tomorrow, yesterday


If something is contained inside a box or a wide flat area, we use ‘in’:


in the newspaper

in a house

in a cup
 
in a drawer

in a bottle

in a bag

in bed

in a car

in London

in England

in a book

in a pub

in a field

in the sea

 in my stomach

in a river

If something is on a line or a horizontal or vertical surface, we use ‘on’:


on the table

on the wall

on the floor

on the fridge

on my face
 
on a plate

on the page

on the sofa

on a chair

on a bag

on the river

on a t-shirt

on the ceiling

on a bottle

on a bike

on his foot
 
If something is at a point, (it could be a building) we use ‘at’:


at the airport

at the door

at the table

at the bus stop

at the cinema

at at the top


at the bottom

at the pub

at the traffic lights

at the front

at the back

at school

at university

at the window

at the hospital

at the piano
 
Here are some more common ones that don’t really fit: • on TV • on the bus • on a train • on a plane • on the radio • at home • at work

Adjectives and prepositions. Some adjectives need a preposition before their object.  It doesn't seem to be logical - I'm afraid we just need to learn them!
 
Here are some of the most common ones:
 •famous for
France is famous for its food.

•proud of
 He is very proud of his new car.
 •interested in
 Julie is very interested in sport.
 •pleased with
  John is very pleased with his new suit.
 •bad at
 They are very bad at maths.
 •good at
 Einstein was very good at physics.
 •married to
 My mother has been married to my father for 20 years.
 •excited about
  I'm very excited about my holiday.
 •different from / to
 Coffee is different from tea.
 •afraid of
 I'm afraid of spiders.
Some verbs need a preposition before an object or another verb. The preposition is only grammatical, it doesn't change the meaning of the verb.
 
Here are some of the most common ones:

•arrive at / in somewhere
We arrived at the airport.
We arrived in London.
 •belong to somebody
This book belongs to me.
 •borrow something from somebody
I borrow a book from my classmate.
 •concentrate on something / doing something
I concentrated on studying at the weekend.
 •depend on something / somebody
It depends on the weather.
 •explain something to somebody
The teacher explained the exercise to the students.
 •listen to something / somebody
I listen to music.
 •pay somebody for something
I pay the waiter for the coffee.
 •wait for somebody / something
Wait for me!
  •worry about somebody / something Don’t worry about a thing!