Using English Prepositions - Lesson 8: At, In, On, Between, Among - Part 1 (place)

There are many prepositions of place,

words or phrases we use to express location.

Behind, in front of...

In this lesson, I'd like to address some common prepositions of place,

one that people easily get confused about.

I had my children sit down,

and then I asked some questions about their school.

I want you to listen and try to follow along.

You'll hear a number of prepositions of place.

So do my children prefer to be at home or at school?

My daughter said she's happy at school and at home.

But my son prefers to be at home where he can relax.

We use AT for a general location.

At home, at work, at school.

And we use AT for places around town.

At the bank, at the store...

But when I talked about their gym, their new gym,

I used IN.

That's because IN is used for rooms.

It means inside that place.

In the gym, in their classrooms, in the cafeteria...

Finally, my children recalled some unpleasant events in their old gym,

where they had to play on a concrete floor.

ON means touching the surface of something.

My son hurt his knee on the floor.

And then my daughter also got hurt,

and she had to sit on the bench after she got hurt.

So AT is for a general location.

IN means inside.

ON means touching the surface.

Look at these sets of words.

With which words would it be best to use IN?

These are all rooms.

They're places we can be inside of.

Which of the two other sets should we use AT with?

These are places around town.

Which means we'd use ON with these words.

When you play these sports, you need to play

on a certain surface.

I know it can be a challenge to choose the right preposition.

In? On? At?

But with some guidelines making that choice becomes easier.

I said AT is used for general location.

But when we talk about places to live,

we often use IN because it's within a certain area.

Here's an exception.

Also note it's sometimes necessary to say "in your home"

if you need to emphasize being inside.

For example:

Here's another note.

When you travel by plane, we say you're ON the plane, but IN the air.

And when you travel by car, we say you're IN the car, but ON the road.

If you think about it, it makes sense.

Finally, let's talk about being at school.

That's for general location.

But if you want to explain that you're still studying

and not working yet,

you say, "I'm still in school."

Look at these other examples.

How might we use ON when we talk about school?

Here's an example.

At the very beginning of the clip,

I asked my children if I could stand

between them or in between.

Why did I use BETWEEN?

Because I hae two kids.

And I wanted to stand in the middle.

Remember that BETWEEN is for 2 people or 2 things.

And we're talking about being in the middle.

Between or in between. You can say it either way.

If we have 3 or more people or things,

we have to use a different preposition.

Which one?

Among.

So that's why we say, "Between you and me,..."

and then I tell you a secret.

Information that's private. It's meant for your ears and mine only.

But I could also say, "Relax. You're among friends."

I'll use AMONG to refer to a group, big or small.

But 3 or more.

You're among friends.

Between you and me...

Very different expressions because of the number.