Using English Prepositions - Lesson 4: At and To - Learn More Grammar!

I'd like to show a clip to you.

You'll get to see if my son

is any good at guessing games.

We have a frog, a star,

and one of your sister's bracelets.

Okay?

I want you to look at me.

Don't look at my hands.

Just look at me.

Look in my eyes.

I'm going to give one of these toys to you,

and you have to guess which one I gave.

Okay? Okay. All right.

So you're looking at me. Don't look at my hands.

Okay.

Which one did I give to you?

My sister's bracelet.

Okay. So you give it back to me.

(Whoops!)

Now we have the frog and the star.

I'll give one more to you. Ready?

Which one did I give?

The frog. - Yeah.

You're good. That's an easy game.

Why did I ask my son

to look at me or up at the ceiling?

I wanted him to direct his attention

away from my hands.

The preposition AT

is probably one that you learned for place...location.

We learn: at home, at work, at school.

But the preposition AT

can also be used for direction.

- Direction of your actions or your efforts.

Look at me. Look at the ceiling.

Don't look at my hands.

I asked my son to direct his attention

toward me.

I asked him not to look at my hands.

Why?

I was giving something to him.

I gave something to him.

So TO also expresses direction,

but there's this expectation

that whatever you're giving

will be received.

That's an important difference.

Here's another example

to help illustrate that difference

between TO and AT.

I'm going to throw this ball to you.

Are you ready?

Catch.

Did you catch it?

No?

I wanted you to.

See, when I throw something to you,

I expect that you'll catch it.

- You'll receive it.

I have something else.

Let's try this.

This is a water balloon.

Ready? I'm going to throw it at you!

No?

I probably shouldn't, right?

If I really throw this at you at you,

you'll probably get mad at me.

And, of course, if I throw this at my camera,

I'm going to ruin it, so it's not a good idea.

I'll put that away.

See, if I throw something at you,

there's no expectation

that you'll receive it.

You might not even know

that I'm directing something to you...or toward you.

If I throw something at you,

I'll probably cause some kind of harm, if not some injury.

And you'll be very mad at me.

So there's the direction of what I'm throwing...

"throw the water balloon at you."

And there's the direction of your feelings...

You would be mad at me.

Your anger would be directed toward me.