Prepositions of place
How to say where something is with in, on, at and the more precise words under, next to, behind, in front of, between, opposite, above and below.
When you use it
A preposition of place tells the listener where something is. English does this with a small group of words: in, on and at cover most everyday situations, and under, next to, behind, in front of, between, opposite, above and below give a more exact position. The preposition always stands before the noun: in the kitchen, on the table. You cannot drop it and you cannot move it after the noun. Ukrainian and Russian also use prepositions here, but they choose them differently, and the ending of the noun does part of the work. English nouns have no case endings, so the preposition carries the whole meaning.
How it is formed
The three basic prepositions each answer a slightly different question about the place.
| Preposition | Core idea | Typical nouns | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| in | inside a space with limits | room, house, city, country, box, car, water, bag | The keys are in the bag. |
| on | touching a surface, or on a line | table, wall, floor, shelf, bus, train, the left | The cup is on the table. |
| at | one point; a place seen as an address or an activity | home, work, school, the door, the bus stop, the station | Tom is at work. |
The more precise prepositions describe the relation between two objects.
| Preposition | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| under | lower than something, often covered by it | The cat is under the sofa. |
| next to | directly at the side of | The bank is next to the school. |
| behind | at the back of | The car is behind the house. |
| in front of | at the front of, facing | A man is standing in front of the door. |
| between | in the space that separates two things | The shop is between the bank and the café. |
| opposite | facing something across a space | Anna lives opposite the park. |
| above / below | higher / lower, not touching | The lamp is above the table. |
A few combinations are fixed and simply have to be remembered. You are in a picture, in the sky, in bed and in the corner of a room. You are on the left or right, on the first floor, on a bus, train or plane, and on the corner of a street. You are at home, at work, at school, at the top or bottom of a page and at the door. When the same noun can take two prepositions, the meaning changes: in the school is the building, at school is the activity of being a pupil there.
Examples
- The keys are in my bag.
- Your cup is on the table, next to the plate.
- Tom is at the bus stop. He is waiting for the number 12.
- Anna works at a bank opposite the station.
- The cat is sleeping under the sofa again.
- There is a small shop between the bakery and the pharmacy.
- We live on the third floor, above a café.
- Who is the man in front of you in the photo?
Common mistakes
- ✗ Look at the people on the picture.
✓ Look at the people in the picture.
Ukrainian and Russian say на картині and на картинке, so on feels natural. English treats a picture, a photo or a mirror as a space you look into, and uses in. - ✗ Tom is in work today.
✓ Tom is at work today.
На роботі and на работе use на for work and в for school, but English uses at for both when it means the activity: at work, at school, at university, at home. In the school only describes the building. - ✗ We were in the bus for an hour.
✓ We were on the bus for an hour.
Buses, trains, planes and ships take on, because you can stand and walk inside them. A car, a taxi or a small boat takes in. Russian uses в for all of them, so this split has to be learned separately. - ✗ The bank is next of the post office.
✓ The bank is next to the post office.
Поруч з and рядом с end in a preposition, and learners copy that with of. The English phrase is fixed: next to, or the single word beside. - ✗ The window is at the left.
✓ The window is on the left.
Left and right are treated as sides of a surface, so they take on: on the left, on the right, on the other side. Зліва and слева give no hint about the English preposition, so the pattern has to be memorised.
Try it
- The milk is ___ the fridge.
- Anna is ___ home today.
- Your phone is ___ the desk, ___ the lamp.
- Who is the woman ___ the photo?
- We sat ___ the bus for two hours.