3. Understanding Prepositions
Look for the message of the sentence as a whole,
not just word by word
Prepositions tell us the relationship between:
• time and space/place
• cause and effect
4. Understanding Prepositions
• It can be hard to hear short prepositions which
begin with vowels
Example:
Life began on the ocean floor. (Correct)
Life began through the ocean floor.
Life began in the ocean floor.
Life began near the ocean floor.
5. Context Clues
• Predict what the preposition was that you missed
hearing (1)
Imagine you hear the following sentence:
I work at the station. (Correct)
I work on the station. (Incorrect)
I work in the station.
I work by the station.
6. Context Clues
• Predict what the preposition was that you missed
hearing (2)
Another Example:
It is very important ( ) the other hand to speak English correctly.
It is very important, ( on ) the other hand, to speak English
correctly.
7. Context Clues
• Predict what the preposition was that you missed
hearing (3)
One More Example:
Sometimes they talk ( ) non-native speakers ( ) English.
Sometimes they talk ( to or with) non-native speakers
( in ) English.
8. Let’s Practice
[Practice 1]
Meet me ( at ) the train station ( at
) 5 o’clock to
buy a present ( ) mom.
for
9. Let’s Practice
[Practice 2]
An English education, ( ) most cases, is available
( ) anyone ( ) this country.
in
in
to
10. Let’s Practice
[Practice 3]
Before I arrive ( at ) work, I pass ( through
) two
subways and walk ( from
) the west side ( of
) town
( to
) the east side ( of
) town.
Understanding prepositions
It is said that the basics of communication are a lot like playing catch ball. To play catch ball, you need a pitcher and a catcher. However, if you can’t throw back the ball that was thrown to you, and mistakenly end up throwing another so-called “ball” of off-topic conversation back, you end up with two people talking at each other, but not really holding a well-flowing conversation. The act of throwing a ball can easily be compared to the act of asking a question. In such a situation, one is often asked questions which use the Interrogatives, “what” and “when” among others , thus the chances of mishearing and mistaking the Interrogative you were “thrown” significantly increase, and you could wind up “throwing back” the wrong “ball” of an answer.
In this lesson, we shall introduce the skills necessary to hear, or “catch,” the appropriate Interrogative used in your catch ball conversation.
Prepositions play a key role in sentence comprehension, so it is important to know what and where these prepositions are.
However, sometimes it is difficult to hear prepositions within a sentence.
An example of this is the Preposition + Noun: At work. However, you may also hear a preposition said with emphasis/stress. This may be a sign that the time and space/place or cause and effect indicated by the preposition is very important information we should use to understand the sentence. Or, the stressed preposition could be stressed to show contrast in meaning.
For example: Life began on the ocean floor.
The emphasis on the preposition, on, means the following sentences are not correct:
Life began through the ocean floor.
Life began in the ocean floor.
Life began near the ocean floor.
In this way, emphasis heard in the strength of pronunciation of a preposition shows us contrast between that preposition and other prepositions which could have been used. We now know there is a reason that on was chosen to show us the location (time and space/place) of where life began, and not any other preposition, such as above, in, or near.
You can do this by using what we call, “context clues.” This means you can look at the words of the sentence which are nearby the preposition to guess the appropriate preposition. Sometimes it can be very helpful to use verbs.
For example, imagine you hear the following sentence: I work at the station.
But you miss hearing the preposition, at. It’s ok. Just look at the verb, work.. Ask yourself, “Where does the speaker work?” Well, you already know the location is the station. Try guessing what the correct preposition to show location (time and space/place) could be:
I work on the station. <- This must be incorrect. It doesn’t make sense.
I work in the station. <- This could be correct. Ask the speaker for more information about where he works.
I work by the station. <- This could be correct. Ask the speaker for more information about where he works.
As you can see, by changing the preposition, or getting it wrong, the meaning of the sentence can be greatly effected.
By finding the verb, work, you can guess that the preposition came either before or after the verb. This is because most sentences follow the pattern: (verb + preposition) or (preposition + verb). This way, if you ask the speaker to repeat themselves, you can be more prepared to listen for the hard-to-hear preposition the second time.
It is very important ( ) the other hand to speak English correctly.
* "on the other hand" is an idiom or expression. You have to know this idiom to know that on is the only correct answer.
"in the other hand," "at the other hand" all do not make sense. This is because the idiom means that you are comparing two different things. They could be choices, viewpoints, etc. The image of this idiom is of someone standing with palms open, and holding out a palm to begin explaining "Choice number 1." They would say, "On the one hand, I like chocolate." Then they would hold out their other hand and say, "But on the other hand, it will make me gain weight." Therefore, I should not eat it. This idiom is used to help people arrive at some type of decision. To answer it correctly- to know the correct preposition to use, you must have the correct image in your head about what the sentence is describing. In this case, it is similar to the hands representing a scale, weighing two different options. The options sit on top of the hand, like they would sit on top of a scale. This is how you know the prepositions: at, in, near, across, etc. are incorrect.
* After "talk," a preposition must follow. You can guess the correct prepositions to go in the parenthesis must be (with) and (to). "Talk to" and "Talk with" are commonly used English phrases.
* If you understand the commonly used formula: "in + language name," it is easy to guess the correct preposition.
Now let’s practice.
Meet me (at) the train station (at) 5 o’clock to buy a present (for) mom.
PLEASE ADD SOME EXPLANATION
An English education, (in) most cases, is available (to) anyone (in) this country.
PLEASE ADD SOME EXPLANATION
Before I arrive (at) work, I pass (through) two subways and walk (from) the west side (of) town (to) the east side (of) town.
PLEASE ADD SOME EXPLANATION
