What's The Difference? English Prepositions BY | FROM | OF

Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

Today we're going to learn about

three important prepositions in English grammar.

You'll learn the difference between the preposition by,

the preposition from

and the preposition of.

And in English, they can be prepositions of time,

they can be prepositions of place, of movement

but actually

several languages have only one word

for all three of these prepositions.

So it's really easy to see how by, from and of

can be a little confusing when you try to use them in English.

But not anymore!

I'll show you when to use them and how to use each

of these prepositions.

Plus, there's a quiz at the end of this lesson

to test what you know and make sure you're using these

prepositions correctly in your English sentences.

Excuse my casual attire today, it is extremely hot.

Thirty-eight degrees.

Not ideal for filming but let's give it a shot anyway.

Which of these prepositions is the most difficult

for you to use?

Let me know down in the comments.

Let's start today's lesson by reviewing each of these

prepositions individually.

After that, we'll take a look at some of the cases where

all three of these prepositions are possible

but the meaning

or the way that it's used is slightly different.

There are lots of different ways to use the

preposition of in English.

Today, we're going to look at the top four most

common uses, starting with

possession and belonging.

So, we use of to show a relationship of possession

or belonging between two nouns.

Members of the club get free parking.

Charles became the King of England.

And this is similar to the way that we use apostrophe S

or the possessive S in English.

My friend's mother is Indonesian.

So the apostrophe S

shows that the mother belongs to the friend.

We can use of to recreate this same sentence but keep

the exact same meaning.

The mother of my friend is Indonesian.

So in this version, of indicates

the relationship between the friend and the mother.

This construction with of is very common

in languages like German

but in English, it is much more common to use that

possessive apostrophe S when we're talking about people

and use of when we're talking about things.

Sarah's house is down the road.

Rather than:

The house of Sarah is down the road.

The colour of her hair was amazing.

Rather than:

Her hair's colour was amazing.

We use of in quantifying expressions that describe

a unit or an amount or a number of something.

This is really common with uncountable nouns.

When we need a way of measuring or counting

an uncountable noun,

we'll say something like:

A cup of flour.

A grain of sand.

A drop of rain.

Thirty per cent of the population.

All of these nouns are uncountable

so to describe how much there is,

we need one of those quantifying expressions.

A cup of, a grain of, a drop of, thirty per cent of.

And we use of to explain the amount of

countable nouns as well.

There were hundreds of people at the airport.

There are millions of stars in the Milky Way.

We can use of to describe the contents of something.

What's inside a box or

a packet or a container of something.

A bag of chips.

A bottle of water.

A book of poetry.

A box of clothes.

And finally, for the fourth most common way

of using of,

we use of in expressions to show the exact

position of something.

The top of your head.

The back of the bus.

The side of the house.

The corner of the street.

The front of the queue.

I know how much prepositions frustrate you

especially when you're trying to move from B1

into B2 or C1 levels

and yet you're still making mistakes with these little words.

I've designed my Preposition 8x8 Course as a step-by-step

guide for intermediate to advanced English learners

to go beyond the basics and learn eight different ways

to use eight prepositions in everyday spoken English.

In the course, you'll learn advanced word patterns

that will take your skills to the next level.

Plus, every lesson includes an interactive

speaking practice with me.

So you'll not only study and learn about prepositions,

you'll also practise and use them

naturally in your spoken English.

And guess what?

I've got a free lesson from that course

that you can try out for yourself.

All of the details are down in the description

but I'll also remind you about it at the end of this lesson

so you can go and check it out then.

From can be a preposition of time or of place.

As a preposition of place, it describes the place

where something starts so it links a noun.

a person or a thing,

to its origin or its starting place.

He sent me a postcard from Spain.

My friend went to Spain and sent me a postcard.

The postcard started in Spain before it travelled

to me here in Perth.

That hot wind is coming from the north.

So the wind originated in the north.

That's where it started and that's why it's so hot today.

The bread is from the bakery on High Street.

As a preposition of time,

from shows the time when something starts.

The shop is open from 9am.

The opening hours start from 9, not before.

They start at 9.

The rules will come into place from tomorrow.

So the rules start tomorrow, not before.

The sculpture dates from the 17th century.

The sculpture was made in the 17th century and that's

when it started to exist.

And finally, from is a preposition of distance

in both time and space.

The beach is five kilometres from here.

The airport is seven kilometres from the city.

So from indicates the distance between these two places.

But we can also express distance in time.

I'll set an alarm for five hours from now.

So five hours into the future.

Five hours after or later than now.

And that brings us to by.

By is another really versatile preposition.

It can be used in lots of different ways

but the main way that we use the preposition by is to indicate

the person or the thing that completes an action.

So you could say that it introduces the doer

of an action.

A book by a famous author.

Who wrote the book?

A famous author.

A painting by Picasso.

Picasso is the doer.

He painted the picture.

We use by like this quite a lot in passive sentences.

So when you want to introduce the doer of an action

in a passive sentence, use by.

The car was driven by a woman with blue hair.

I was shocked by what I saw on the news.

By can also describe a method.

It can indicate how something is done.

The ring was made by hand.

We travelled by train.

She improved her English by reading the newspaper.

So in all of these examples, by describes a method

of completing an action.

How did we travel?

By train.

How did she improve her English?

By reading the newspaper.

When by is a preposition of place, it means near or

to the side of something.

She lives by a park

means she lives near or next to a park.

Frankie is always by my side.

Frankie stays close.

She stays next to me.

When by is a preposition of time, it means not later than.

So at or before.

Imaginary watch.

They're usually home by nine.

They get home at nine or maybe sometimes before nine

but not after nine.

I've got another lesson that dives into the difference

between by and until.

It's right up here and it's quite useful

when we're talking about using by related to time.

And finally we can use by to indicate measurements

and amounts.

The room is three metres by four.

Sea levels rose by twenty centimetres.

They sell oil by the barrel.

Now, if only it was that simple.

But English prepositions are tricky little things.

So let's go a little bit deeper into those moments

where you need to choose between by, from and of.

A book by James Clear

is a book written by James Clear.

He wrote this book.

It's a book by him.

But a book from James Clear is a book

that James Clear gave me, right?

So in this case, he is the starting point of the book.

It's where it came from.

But a book of James Clear's is a book that

belongs to James Clear.

Maybe he lent it to me because he wanted me to read it.

A book of James Clear's is a book that belongs to him.

And a little earlier, we heard the example of a book

of poetry, meaning that this book

is a collection of poetry or it contains poetry.

Do you see how changing something as small and

insignificant as a little preposition

can actually completely change the meaning of a sentence?

It's crazy, huh?

And when it comes to the verb made,

things get a little more complicated.

When we say made from, we mean that it has been

used to manufacture or to create something else.

It describes that there's been a transformation

during the process of making that object.

It's changed from one thing into something else.

Linen is made from flax.

Or paper is made from wood pulp.

In both these examples, the verb made can be substituted

for the verb manufactured.

When we say made of, we mean composed of.

So it describes the basic material of something,

something that you can still see or touch, it still

exists in its original form.

Her dress is made of silk.

The table is made of wood.

So in these examples, made can be substituted for composed.

And then of course, there's made by.

So by can describe

either how something was made or who made it.

The dress was made by my friend.

Or the dress was made by hand.

And there's one more area where I know some of you

get a little bit lost and that's talking about

a change in number or amount.

Let me show you what I mean.

There has been an increase of fifteen per cent

over the last five years.

The price has increased by fifteen per cent over the last year.

The price has increased from $1 to $1.15.

These three sentences all convey the same information.

They're all saying pretty much the same thing.

So how do you know when to use of, by or from?

There's a little trick to this that I want to share.

In this sentence, increase is a noun.

An increase.

So actually, this is a collocation

where we use the noun increase.

with the preposition of.

So,

when increase is a noun, it's followed by of.

But here, increase is a verb.

When increase is a verb, it collocates with by.

The price has increased by fifteen per cent.

And here, from indicates the starting point.

Prices started at one dollar and ended

at one dollar fifteen.

So there's a couple of rules here.

When you're talking about a change to an amount or number,

then verbs like increase, rise,

fall and decrease

are used with the preposition by.

And the nouns of these same verbs, an increase,

a rise, a fall,

a decrease,

these all collocate with the preposition of.

Now these ones are all extra tricky because the noun

and the verb forms are exactly the same.

Thank you very much English!

So just make sure you're paying attention to the

structure of the sentence.

Look out for the article.

That's your clue that it's a noun rather than a verb.

I'll give you one more example.

Water levels fell by one metre.

We have our verb, by and then the amount.

Experts noticed a fall of one metre in the water level.

So we have noun, of and then the amount.

Okay let's test your skills with a quick

prepositions quiz.

Choose the correct preposition.

Of,

from or by.

The house is made of bricks.

Plastic is made from oil.

The number of visitors to the National Park has increased

from 300 per week to 1500.

The cake is a gift from my mum.

The cost of airfares has increased

by 15% over the past three years.

I sent my mum a Christmas card from Germany

while I was travelling.

The chair is made of plastic.

The lasagna was made by my mum.

I hope this lesson was interesting and that it

helped to make these three important prepositions

a little easier to understand.

Make sure you head over to the mmmEnglish website

and check out my courses.

They go into much more detail about prepositions

and how to use them

than anything you'll find here on YouTube.

And you can check out the rest of the Prepositions course

while you're there and get a special offer

for all of my gorgeous mmmEnglish students.

The links and details are all in the description below

or head over to the mmmEnglish website.

I'll see you there!