Can you pass this prepositions test? (Beginner to Advanced)

Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Can you complete this sentence?

We go to school __ foot.

Is it by foot?

On foot?

In foot?

This is what I'm going to test you on and

teach you about today.

I'm going to test your grammar skills.

But today, we're not focusing on tenses or advanced sentence structure.

Instead, we're going to cover prepositions.

Words like for, to, on, inside.

They might seem simple, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

I'm going to teach you through a quiz.

The quiz has 12 questions.

You answer the question, and then I give you a mini-lesson about each answer.

This way, you're really going to remember and retain the information.

Something that will also help is the free PDF that I've created for today's lesson.

It breaks down everything that we talk about.

I've also included a prepositions review

that you can look over before you take today's test.

I've also included an extra quiz at the end.

If you'd like to download the free PDF,

all you have to do is click on the link in the description box, you enter your

name and your email address, you sign up for my mailing list, and the PDF will

arrive directly in your inbox.

After that, you'll automatically receive

my free weekly PDFs alongside my news, course updates, and offers.

It's a free service, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

I have also included a secret link in the email that you'll receive when you

download your free PDF.

That link will take you to an interactive

exercise pack with loads of activities that you can use to test your

understanding of prepositions.

It's really cool.

It's interactive with instant corrections, but it's only available if

you download the PDF.

Okay, let's get on with the quiz.

I'm going to go through 3 different levels of preposition mastery: beginner,

intermediate, and then advanced.

The beginner ones are harder than you

think, so don't skip ahead.

I will read each question along with the

potential answers, and I'll give you 5 seconds to answer.

If you need more time, use the pause button.

Grab a paper and pen, write down your

answers as you go, and make sure you let me know how you did out of 12 in the

comments section.

Let's start with our beginner level.

Number 1, she arrived __ 8pm.

Is it A, in?

B, on?

Or C, at?

I'll give you 5 seconds.

Okay, the correct preposition of time is

C, at.

She arrived at 8 PM.

We use at to talk about specific times.

When we say she arrived at 8 PM, it means

she came at that exact time.

Number 2, are you ready?

Greg put his guitar __ its case.

Is it A, into?

B, at?

Or C, off?

The answer is A, into.

Greg put his guitar into its case.

We use into to show that we move an object in or inside another object.

This sentence means that Greg moved the guitar from where it was to inside the case.

Into shows the action of entering or going inside.

Number 3, they live __ South Wales.

Is it A, in?

B, on?

Or C, at?

The answer is A, in.

They live in South Wales.

We use in to talk about locations within larger areas, like regions, countries,

cities, and parts of cities.

In this sentence, we are saying where

their home is located.

Number 4, we go to school __ foot.

This is the one that I mentioned in the intro.

Is it A, by?

B, on?

Or C, in?

The correct answer is B, on.

But you will also sometimes hear by.

I'm not going to say it's incorrect, but on is the most correct, according to my research.

We generally use on in the phrase on foot to talk about walking or going somewhere

by walking.

The expression on foot is a set phrase in

English that specifically refers to walking as a mode of transportation.

Now, you might hear or read by foot used due to a common confusion with other

methods of transport that typically use by.

We generally use by to say which mode of

transport someone is using.

For example, by car, by bus, by train, or

by plane.

By foot is creeping into modern usage.

I saw a statistic saying that it's used in 10% of cases.

The traditionally correct phrase is on foot.

Okay, how are you doing so far?

We're going to move the difficulty level up a notch.

It's time for some intermediate-level questions.

Number 5, I'm looking forward __ the weekend.

Is it A, to?

B, for?

Or C, at?

I don't know what I'm doing with these fingers.

Never correct.

The correct answer is A, to.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Here, we're using the phrasal verb to

look forward to.

To is used as a dependent preposition

that connects the verb phrase looking forward with what one is excited or eager

about, in this case, the weekend.

Number six, Jamie is responsible ___ managing

the team.

Is it A, of?

B, for?

Or C, to?

The correct answer is B, for, responsible for.

Jamie is responsible for managing the team.

Here, for is the dependent preposition of the adjective responsible to describe

Jamie's specific role.

Responsible for is a common collocation,

two words that just go together.

Number 7, that book was written an

__ anonymous author.

Is it A, by?

B, from?

Or C, through?

The answer is A, by.

That book was written by an anonymous author.

The preposition by is a preposition of agency, showing who performed the action

in the passive voice.

Number 8, this is a double whammy.

Double whammy is slang.

We use it to describe a situation that is

bad in two different ways.

I'm implying that this question is bad

because you have to answer 2 separate preposition questions in it.

It can also describe situations where 2 bad things happen one after the other.

My girlfriend broke up with me and the next day I was fired.

What a double whammy.

Let's get back to it.

They should be __ Paris __ the afternoon.

Is it A, at and in?

Is it B, to and in?

Or is it C, in and by?

The answer is C, in and by.

They should be in Paris by the afternoon.

The preposition in is a preposition of place, indicating location, just like we

saw earlier with Wales or South Wales, I think it was.

Here, by is a preposition of time, indicating a deadline or the latest time

for something to happen.

Okay, let's move on to advanced-level prepositions.

This is going to get tricky.

Number 9, another double whammy.

We went __ __ dinner, which was surprisingly enjoyable, contrary __ our initial expectations.

Is it A, away for and with?

B, out for and to?

Or C, down on and at?

Okay, this one was super tricky.

The correct answer is B, out for and to.

We went out for dinner, which was

surprisingly enjoyable, contrary to our initial expectations.

To go out is a phrasal verb, which means to leave your house.

This phrasal verb is followed by the preposition of purpose, for, to indicate

the reason for going out.

In the second part of the sentence, we

have the dependent preposition, to, which is used with the adjective, contrary, to

show contrast, contrary to something.

Note the pronunciation of this word, contrary.

It's got three syllables, contrary, but sometimes in spoken English, we skip the

schwa in the middle syllable and just say, contrary.

In this sentence, contrary to shows the contrast to what was previously thought

or believed.

It means that the enjoyment of the dinner

was a surprise because it was not what was expected.

I think they expected the dinner to not be very good.

This next one is tricky because we have two parts to the answer again, meaning

it's another, can you remember the slang term?

Double whammy.

Okay, number 10, we need two prepositions here.

The film is based __ a novel, and it stays

true ___ the original story.

Is it A, on and to?

Is it B, in and with?

Or is it C, about and by?

It is A, on and to.

The film is based on a novel, and it stays

true to the original story.

We've got two prepositional phrases here,

on a novel and to the original story.

Let's look at on a novel first.

We are using the phrasal verb to base something on something, which we often

see used in the passive voice.

It's used to establish a relationship

where the novel serves as the material for the film.

We often say something is based on a novel or based on a true story.

We follow true with to when we want to express that something is faithful to

something else.

The film is being compared to the

original story in terms of its accuracy to the novel.

Number 11, various options here.

We discussed the problem ___ but couldn't

come ___ a solution.

Is it A, by means and in to?

Is it B, in detail and out of?

Or is it C, at length and up with?

The correct answer is C, at length and up with.

We discussed the problem at length, but

couldn't come up with a solution.

At length functions as an adverbial

prepositional phrase.

It acts on the verb to discuss and

describes how the problem was discussed.

It was discussed for a long time.

It was discussed at length.

That's a really beautiful phrase you can

use to elevate your speaking and writing.

We also have the phrasal verb to come up

with, which means to think of or produce an idea, plan or solution.

So, this sentence means that there was a detailed and lengthy discussion about the

problem, but no solution was found.

Are you ready for our final question,

number 12?

We have three gaps here, a triple whammy.

I'm not sure if that's commonly said, but we can use it.

Our new policy is aimed ___ reducing emissions, necessitating a shift ___ our

reliance on fossil fuels ____ sustainable energy sources.

3 gaps there.

Is it A, at, from and to?

Is it B, towards, off and into?

Or is it C, for, away and towards?

The answer for our final question is A, at, from and to.

Our new policy is aimed at reducing emissions, necessitating a shift from our

reliance on fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources.

Let's take a look at what's going on here in these different prepositional phrases.

First, we have the phrase aimed at reducing emissions.

At is used to indicate the target or goal of the policy.

It means that the purpose of the new policy is to reduce emissions.

Next, the from… to… structure is very common in English.

It shows a change, difference or movement from one state to another.

It's versatile, and it can be used to talk about changes in time, location,

situations or strategies like the shift in our sentence.

Let's look a little bit deeper.

In the phrase, a shift from our reliance

on fossil fuels, from is used to indicate the starting point of the change.

It means that there is a move away from depending on fossil fuels.

In the phrase to sustainable energy sources, to is used to indicate the

endpoint or destination of the shift.

It means that the move is towards using

sustainable energy sources instead of fossil fuels.

Easy peasy, right?

Now it's time to count up your scores and

share them in the comments section.

I specifically want to know which

questions you found particularly difficult because then I can do more work

on them.

If you are not yet confident and

satisfied with your knowledge of prepositions, download the PDF because

you get access to that secret link which takes you to our interactive exercise pack.

You also get the downloadable PDF which has all of the lesson in detail with

extra examples and a quiz at the end.

To download that, just click on the link

in the description box.

Also, if you're interested in mastering

the B1, B2 or C1 levels of English, that's from intermediate to advanced, you

might like my Beautiful British English Programmes.

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students have enrolled in these programmes and they have had the most fantastic results.

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That's it for today's lesson.

I will see you in the next one.