Prepositions of place

Nouns

1. Prepositions of place

The keys are in the handbag.

The dog is behind me because it's shy.

2. How are prepositions of place used?

These prepositions are always placed before the element which expresses where something or someone is. The most common ones are the following:

IN

The clock is in the box.

ON

The kid is on the whale.

UNDER

The baby's dummy is under the table.

NEXT TO

The cinema is next to the restaurant.

IN FRONT OF

The girl is in front of the sheep.

BEHIND

The boy is behind the curtains.

BETWEEN

My car is between those two trees.

AROUND

These cats are around the rubbish bin.

ABOVE

The balloon is above the table.

We use above but not on when something is on a higher position than something else. There's no contact between the object and the surface.

BELOW

The table is below the lamp.

We use below when something is in a lower place or position. There's no contact between the object and the surface.

OVER

The athlete is jumping over the hurdle.

She is wearing a shawl over her dress.

Over and above have a similar meaning and can be used interchangeably in many cases. However, over, unlike above, can be used when there's contact with the surface, in this case it has a similar meaning to cover. When there's movement, we can only use over.

AMONG

The rabbit is among the boxes.

Among is translated as between but it is used when something  or someone is in a group of 3 or more things, while between is used when something or someone is in the middle of 2 things.

BY / BESIDE

She is sitting by/beside her bed.

By and beside are used to refer to something which is very close to something else. They could be replaced by next to.

OPPOSITE

The boy is sitting opposite the girl.

Opposite is used to express that two things, people, buildings... are face to face.

ACROSS

The bank is across the street from the saloon.

Across is used to express that something or someone is on the other side of a street, road, river, table...

3. Prepositions of place: at, in, on  

In English, the three most common prepositions of place are in, on and at, and are used according to the element they accompany:

• AT 

  It is used to refer to the particular point at which an element is located.

  Use	Examples
  Specific buildings	At home	At school
  	At the airport	At the bus station
  Particular position	At the door	At the table
  	At the entrance	At the desk
  Events	At a concert	At a tennis match
  	At a party	At a meeting
  For addresseswhen number and street are mentioned	At 16 Oxford Street	At 26 Spring Gardens Street
  	At 88 Tree Ave	At 100 William IV Street

• IN

  It is used to express that an element is in a closed space, or in an open space that has defined limits.

  Use	Examples
  Cities, towns, countries, etc.	In London	In Spain
  	In Barcelona	In Florence
  Parts of a house	In the kitchen	In the garden
  	In the bedroom	In the sitting room
  Other expressions	In a car	In a taxi
  	In a newspaper	In prison

• ON

  It is used to express that an element touching a surface.

  Use	Examples
  Means of transport	On a bus	On a train
  	On a plane	On a ship
  Surfaces	On the wall	On the ceiling
  	On a door	On the floor
  For addresses when only the street is mentioned(In is also used)	On Oxford Street	On Tree Street
  	On Spring Gardens Street	On William IV Street
  Other expressions	On TV	On the Internet
  	On the grass	On a farm

Sometimes one preposition or another can be used before the same expression of place, but the meaning will slightly change.

My sister is in hospital.

In this case the girl is a patient.

My sister is at the hospital.

In this case the girl is not a patient, she is just visiting someone.

Martin is sitting on the table.

In this case the boy is literally on the table.

Martin is sitting at the table.

In this case the boy is next to the table, sitting on a chair.

He is at the cinema.

In this case the boy can be both inside and in front of the cinema.

He is in the cinema.

In this case we want to specify that the boy is inside the cinema.

Remember!

On

In

Next to

In front of

Behind

Under

Between

Around

Above

Below

Over

Among

Opposite

Across

By / Beside