Let's Learn English! Topic: Prepositions of Place! 🌳🗳️🪑 (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about

prepositions of place. You've probably watched a few English

lessons on YouTube about prepositions of place. There

are prepositions like in on at by those types of things. Those

types of words. Um and in those lessons people usually try to

explain when to use them. I've done a lesson on this myself.

Uh in this lesson though I've tried to pick some really

common English phrases with those prepositions in them and

some other ones so that you can see them in context with a

picture. So I'll be showing you pictures and then describing

that picture using a small phrase with the preposition of

place in it. So I think that should help if you have a

visual reference and you have an English teacher explaining

it while showing you the visual reference. Maybe that will help

you remember some of these because I'll be honest

prepositions of place in English are a little bit

confusing Um sometimes I don't even understand why we use the

preposition we do. But anyways welcome to this English lesson

about prepositions of place. In a tree. So it's interesting

when you talk about trees. If you look over here this monkey

is in a tree. If we go back to this picture this owl is in a

tree. This owl is on a branch though. So this monkey is in a

tree. You sometimes will see birds in trees. Sometimes if

you think back to your childhood maybe you would climb

a tree. I came home from work one day and as I walked under a

tree someone said hi to me and I realized one of my kids was

in the tree. So we use the or we use the preposition in when

we talk about trees but we have to be a little bit careful

because on the next slide I'm going to use on a tree. So

these are blossoms. These blossoms are on the tree.

They're on a In the spring here the trees don't have leaves but

eventually the trees will have leaves on them. So you have to

be careful when there is something like a monkey in the

tree we use in the tree. But when we talk about leaves and

blossoms we then say on the tree. And then sometimes you

stand under a tree. So I like standing under a tree

especially when it's really really hot outside it's nice to

stand under a tree because there is shade under a tree. So

if it's a hot day and you want to cool off. So Sometimes

someone will say hey let's go stand under a tree because it's

hot. Let's go stand in the shade. So notice we stand under

the tree. But you can also say that you are standing or

sitting in the shade. So we switch to the preposition in.

It's nice to stand in the shade. Uh it I've been standing

in the shade a lot this summer whenever I am needing a small

break from working outside. I will often go and stand in the

shade and have a drink of water. That's that's a nice

place to go in the shade. It's a nice place to read a book

too. This lady is reading a book in the shade. This cat is

in a box. This is one of your basic usages. Whenever you have

a container we always use in. Last week I did a lesson about

storage. I think if I think quickly I put my recycling in

the recycling bin. This cat is in a box. Sometimes we put We

actually have milk crates and the milk comes in the crate. So

whenever you have a container you almost always will use the

preposition in. It just makes the most sense. Of course when

you have a book you will put the book on a shelf. But if you

have a piece of furniture called a bookcase you will put

the book in a bookcase. So here you can see the book is

actually the reason we're using on is because the book is on

the shelf. I'm not supposed to use the word to define the word

but these books are not under or beside. They're on the

shelf. But if you have this piece of furniture if you have

a bookcase you would say these books are in the bookcase. If

Jen said to me where's the recipe book? I could say oh

it's in the bookcase in the back room. I could also say

it's on a shelf in the bookcase. So we can kind of

combine them together. Hopefully I'm not making this

lesson too confusing. And here you can see that these picture

frames are on top of the bookcase. So you can put things

in a bookcase. You can put things on top of a bookcase.

You can also put them on. I don't know why we sometimes use

the phrase on top of. Um I think it's just sometimes in

English we like to use more words than necessary. I could

say these picture frames are on the bookcase but I could also

say they are on top of the bookcase. I guess it's just a

little more precise. A little more precise way to say it.

When I get home from buying groceries. Sorry I have

something in my eye here. There we go. When I get home from

buying groceries I put the groceries in the cupboard. The

cold things I put in the fridge or in the freezer. But I put

the groceries in the cupboard if they are things like boxes

or cans. If they don't need to go in the fridge and if they

don't need to go in the freezer I will put them in the

cupboard. So notice I'm using in again because these are all

places where we store something and generally we will use the

word in. When we talk about that. This girl is reading a

book by the river. Now sometimes people ask about the

difference between by and beside. You could say that this

girl is reading beside the river. You could say that she's

reading by the river. It simply means she's not in the river.

And she's not far away from the river. She's close to the

river. So we would say she's reading a book by the river. Or

she's reading a book beside the river. Um the other day I went

kayaking. Um and then I went by the river to put my kayak in

the river and then I went and did a little bit of kayaking.

So let's talk about stores for a bit. So first of all these

people are in the store. This person is at the store. And

these shoes are from the store. And this is in front of the

store. So stores are interesting because if I say to

Jen I'm going to go to Walmart. Um I'll meet you in the store.

That means I will be inside of the store doing some shopping.

If I say to Jen meet me at the store it kind of means I'll be

waiting in front of it or I'll be by the entrance of the

store. I'll meet you at Walmart. I'll meet you at the

store. Indefinitely means that you're in the store. And at

definitely means that you're near the front of it in my

mind. Um when you buy something you buy it from the store. And

then when you wait for someone and you want to be precise you

say that you're going to be in front of the store. But let me

confuse you all for a minute. I could say where did you get

those shoes? Did you buy them online? No I bought them in a

store. I bought them at a store. I bought them from a

store. For some reason with stores it's very easy to use

different prepositions and most of them are correct. Okay? Um

where do you get your shoes? I get my shoes in a store. I get

my shoes from a store. I get my shoes at a store. All of those

are correct. From an at sound the most to my ear but if you

used in it would be fine as well. I don't know why stores

are unique in that way. Um but definitely these three you

can't really go wrong if you use one of them. You know where

do you buy your cereal? I buy my cereal from the store. I buy

my cereal at the store. I was in the store the other day and

I bought some some cereal when I was in the store. The cereal

I bought in the store. Yeah I would use at and from when

talking about the things you bought. So I didn't confuse

you. If I ever need to meet with you in a mall I would say

let's meet in front of the Walmart. So I would use this

phrase. Now of course two last things and then we'll do some

questions. Uh when you go for a ride you go for a ride in the

car. Um I when you get into a car you get in the car. And

whenever we talk about cars and vans we use in but when we talk

about public transportation we use on. Okay so you're going to

go on a train you're going to go on a plane. Um there's a

little bit of a distinction I'll give you. Um if you talk

about how did you there you could say I got here in a car

or I got here by car. If you someone asked how did you get

here you could say oh I came on the train or I came by train.

So you can kind of use buy as well to talk about those two.

Out of the box. So you put things in a box and then you

later take things out of the box. So this is kind of an

action. You know he's taking the flowers out of the box.

When you move when you unpack you take your things out of the

boxes. So it's not exactly it's more describing the action than

where things are in this case. You know when you say the boy

is in the tree. Then we're talking about the location.

This is more an action. You take things out of the box. The

reverse would be the phrasal verb. You put things in the

box. So earlier they put the flowers in the box. Now they're

taking the flowers out of the box. So let's talk about next

to. So in this picture you see the two cars right here. These

cars are next to each other. The car with the yellow sun

protector is next to the other car with the red sun protector.

The car way on the other side is not close to these. But

these cars are next to each other. The car on the right is

next to the other car on the left. So you can kind of see

that next two means right beside. I'm going to sit beside

you at the meeting. I'm going to sit next to you at the

meeting. In this case the car this is not my car. This car is

between the cars. So we have a row of cars and this car is

between the other two cars. So sometimes people get a little

confused with between and among. So this car is between

two other cars. This person is among the flowers. So notice

here the cars are in a row. And this car is in the row and it

is between the other two cars. In this case There are flowers

all around this girl. So this girl is among the flowers. So

if you were waiting in line you would have a you would be

between two people when you're in line. But if you're in a

crowd you are among other people because there's people

all around you. So hopefully that makes sense. Between and

among. Often if you go to a building the front of the

building looks nice and you meet people in front of the

building. You don't often meet people behind the building.

It's a little uglier and darker at and there's usually things

like this garbage dumpster. But this is definitely behind the

building. Sometimes there's an alley behind a building. Um and

there's no real good reason to go behind a building I don't

think. I'm someone who usually stays in front of buildings. I

it's not that dangerous behind buildings at night in a dark

city is it? I don't think so. Sometimes when you go for a

trip you go on a plane and when you're on the plane you'll you

go above the clouds. I think we're all familiar with above.

So the simplest thing would be this key is on my hand. This

key if it was floating would be above my hand. Okay so on means

that it's actually you know placed there. Whereas above

means that there's some space between them. So it's my

tractor key by the way. Uh And we also have below the water.

So you can go above the clouds in an airplane. You can go

below the water in a submarine. So again below would mean that

you are underneath I guess. I guess a better word for it is

underwater in this case. So this is not technically part of

the lesson. But in English we don't often say I'm going to go

swim below the water. We usually say I'm going to go

swim underwater. The submarine goes below the water more

likely we would say the submarine goes underwater. It

just sounds a bit better. Sometimes when you go to a

restaurant or you go to see a movie you might sit near the

exit and we talked about near a little bit earlier. Um near

doesn't mean right beside or next to. It can be but it

usually means in the vicinity. Do you know that word vicinity?

So if I go shopping and if we meet Jen's sister we usually

try to park near each other. If we can we Park beside each

other and more precise we would say it's nice to park right

beside each other. But sometimes you can't. But you

still park near each other. So maybe I'm in one row and my

sister-in-law's a couple cars down parked in another row but

we're still fairly close. Close enough to able to talk. We

would say that we are near each other. Sometimes you go to a

restaurant and they give you a table near the door to the

kitchen. And that's not very nice because then the servers

keep coming in and out and it's a little bit loud when that

happens. So I'm going to talk about on the left and on the

right. So we use on the left and on the right sometimes to

describe where something is. In this case I'm using driving. In

Canada we drive on the right. I think in Britain and in Japan

and in Australia they drive on the left. So we drive on the

right in Canada. On the left South Africa. Drive on the

left. You can also use this to talk about where something is.

If I said to Jen can you grab me a book off the shelf? And if

she said one I could say oh the one on the left so I'm

directing her but if you want to be more precise we use to

the left and to the right so here I could say could you get

the orange book it's to the left of the red book so it's

the book immediately to the left you could say on the left

but it's this sounds better to me can you get me the orange

book it's to the right of the blue book also if I was

instructions to someone. I can say put the orange book on the

shelf to the left of the red book. Put the orange book on

the shelf to the right of the blue book. So that's that's how

I interpret these different ways of saying it. On the left

and on the right are used more to describe where something is.

And to the left and to the right are used a lot when

you're telling someone to do something. Get me the book.

It's to the left of the red book. I could say it's on the

left. Now I would say the one that's to the left. The one

that's to the right. You can't go wrong here though. If you

use on the left or on the right I think it's going to sound

okay. And I hope my explanation helped a bit and was it too

confusing. Hey sometimes kids play with toys and they play on

the floor. So this is was one of my kids' favourite places to

play. They would often play on the floor. Um their toys would

sometimes be on the floor. Sometimes as I mentioned last

week I think someone joked. Mode joked about stepping on a

Lego. Um my kids would leave their Lego which is a kind of

toy on the floor and then sometimes I would step on the

Lego if it was on the floor. So when we talk about the floor we

we use on interestingly enough though we also hang things on

the wall and we can say that things are on the ceiling as

well. So on the floor makes sense. Because when we talk

about on if I take this camera lens I can put it on my hand.

So talking about things being on the floor makes a lot of

sense. But we do all hang pictures on the wall. If you

buy a poster of Justin Bieber you might hang it on the wall

in your room. On the wall. In your room. Did you get that on

in? Um if you have some nice art you would hang it on the

wall. And then this ceiling fan is on the ceiling. Um sometimes

you have a hanging plant and you will put a hook on the

ceiling so that you can have it hanging from the ceiling. So

it's interesting how we do this right? Like the lights in this

room are not on the ceiling. They're actually lamps. But in

the kitchen we have a light on the ceiling. If something has a

rope or chain we would then say it's hanging from the ceiling.

Okay so that's kind of the difference between the two. And

then of course if you go out to have fun you might talk to

someone at the party. If you go to a party you might say oh I

hope that I run into Joe at the party because I haven't seen

him for a long time. Or I talked to my cousin at the

party last night. It was really nice to see her. I haven't seen

her for a very long time. She was at the party. So let me

just use a few phrases here though. In a week or two going

to go to a party. And I hope when I'm at that party I have a

good time. So notice I'm going to go to the party when I'm at

that party I hope I have a good time. And I hope that there are

a lot of people at that party. It's not for my birthday by the

way. Which is a mysterious day sometime in July or August. And

I may or may not be turning 51 this year. Although I think I

mentioned last year that I turned fifty. So anyways maybe

you already know. Um but anyways hopefully I have a good

time at the party. So at home and at work when you talk about

where you are right now I'm at home I've been at home for a

couple weeks now. I haven't been at work for two weeks. Um

when I am at work I'm very happy. I like the job that I

do. But I'm also very happy to be at home for a little while.

It's very nice to have a bit of a break and to be at home. Now

interestingly we don't use at home when we're talking about

work though. So recently Many people weren't able to go to

work so they needed to work from home. So we don't usually

say I'm going to work at home. If you work yeah like during

the pandemic a lot of people would work from home. You can

say that you're going to work at home. But it's I think it's

more common to say from now. Like next Tuesday I'm going to

work at home. No I would say I'm going to work from home.

When you say that you're going to work from home it implies

that you're not going to be going to work that day. So

you're going to work from home. A lot of students had to learn

from home last year. Um they had remote learning we called

it and I had to work from home as well. When you talk about

countries we use in. I live in Canada. Um it's nice to live in

Canada. I'm sure if you live in France it's nice there as well.

I'm sure if you live in Japan it's great. I'm sure if you

live in the United States it's great. Um we use IN. Um it's

really cold in Canada in the winter. And it's hot in Canada

in the summer. So in is what we use with countries. Unless

you're travelling right? I'm going to go to Canada. Or I

came from Canada. So to and from are a little different.

They're very unique. But definitely it's good to wear a

coat in Canada in the winter. When you watch TV you see

things on TV. You know oh I saw that on TV the other day. I saw

that on the news. I was watching TV and on TV they said

that the world is getting better. I I maybe that's hard

to believe today but well you you could say oh I saw that

actor on TV the other day. Matt Damon was on TV the other day.

I saw him he was being interviewed. I saw him on TV.

When you talk about a building and if the building has

multiple floors we use on. So where is your apartment? My

apartment is on the third floor. Where is your apartment?

My apartment is on the sixth floor. Where is your office?

Our office is on the second floor. So we use on when

talking about where something is in regards to a building. So

it could be on the fifth floor or the sixth floor. Maybe it's

on the tenth floor. That's a little high for me. When I stay

in a hotel don't like staying really high up because I'm

afraid of heights. By the way I'm going to do a video about

fears soon so we'll see how that goes. I did one before but

I'm going to do another one. This man is in the river. So we

talked earlier about a girl who was reading beside the river.

She was reading a book by the river. This man is definitely

in the river. When you go in a boat though you would say that

you're on the river. So when I go kayaking I go kayaking I

guess I could on the river but if I said in the river noone

would say that was a mistake. You go canoeing in a river you

go canoeing on a river. You can use in and on when you're using

boats. Um but this guy's definitely in the river for

sure. If he was on the shore we would say he's fishing by the

river. But he's definitely fishing in the river. So let's

talk a little bit about in school and at school. If you

learned to read you probably learned to read in school you

probably learned to read at school. In those situations it

means the same thing. Um you learn a lot of things in

school. You learn a lot of things at school. Um one of the

reasons you go to school is so that you can learn new things.

And then later you can say oh I learned about that in school. I

learned about that at school. But these students are in

school. They're physically the building. The same way the cat

was in the box. These kids are in school. So here we're

talking about the things you learned. I learned how to add

and subtract in school. I learned how to add and subtract

at school. Today I am in school. This boy is in school.

Like he's physically actually in the building. Uh when you're

driving you stop at the light. So when you see a traffic light

you stop at the light and you wait for the light to turn

green. I think the colours are the same in every country of

the world. But definitely the other day I was in town and I

stopped at the light and the light was red forever. I'm

exaggerating there but I stopped at the light and it was

definitely a long wait when I stopped at the light. So let's

talk about up the road down the road. So here's how this works.

If the road is flat if there is no hill you can use either. If

someone stopped here and said do you know where Joe lives? I

could say oh he lives up the road. Just drive up the road

another 5 minutes. I could also say Joe lives down the road.

Just drive down the road another 5 minutes. So if the

road is flat you can use up or down and it doesn't matter. If

however the road is actually on a hill you would probably say

up the road to talk about up the hill and down the road talk

about down the hill. Okay. So again if it's flat use either.

No one will blink an eye. That means noone will think you made

a mistake. So where does he live? Oh up the road five

miles. Where does she live? Oh down the road six kilometres.

But if you are on a mountain you would use up the road to

talk about going up and down to go down. Sometimes the doorbell

rings and someone is at the door. For us it is most often

the person delivering something from Amazon. The doorbell goes

and we'll say oh somebody's at the door. Who's at the door? Oh

Oscar's barking. Someone is at the door. So when someone comes

to your house or apartment and knocks or rings the doorbell we

say that they are at the door. And let's talk a little bit

about four dinner and at dinner. So tonight we are going

to have spaghetti for dinner. Yesterday we had hamburgers for

dinner. Two days ago we had fried zucchini. Do you know

what zucchini is? With a pasta meat sauce for dinner. When you

talk about what you're eating we use four. What are you

going to have for dinner tonight? Oh I think we're going

to have subs for dinner tonight. I think we're going to

have pizza for dinner tonight. So You can also use this when

you say you can invite someone over for dinner. Okay. So I'm

going to invite my family over for dinner on my birthday. Or

did I already do that? Maybe I already invited my family over

for dinner. Maybe my birthday was last week. Who knows? It's

a mystery. Um but when you talk about the actual dining you say

at dinner. We had a nice conversation at dinner last

night. Um we are going to talk about a new business proposal

at dinner tonight. Um I had a lovely time at dinner last time

at last night. So we use four to talk about the meal or the

event like they're coming over for dinner or we're having

spaghetti for dinner. But when we talk about things that

happened while we were eating we use at. So we would say I

had a nice time at dinner last night. Um Yeah what was my

other one? It was really enjoyable at dinner last night.

Yes I would say that. So anyways for dinner at dinner.