My poor Spanish students always complain that “prepositions don’t make sense in English!”

They have a hard time learning them, and I’m not surprise to be honest.

Not because they don’t make sense (they do make sense), but rather because they’ve been learning them the wrong way.

This goes back to teaching language points in stages. What happens is that an English learner will learn that we say on Sunday, on the bus, on TV, and on the table.

They learn each of these combinations over a very long time and when they start to think about what on actually means, they think, “What on Earth do Sunday, the bus, TV, and the table have in common?!”

And of course the answer is “absolutely nothing”.

Then they get frustrated and start to hate prepositions because they don’t understand the logic, they make mistakes with them, and they feel that they need to memorise the thousands of possible combinations.

Do you like prepositions in English?

I can almost hear you shouting “No!” into your computer screen right now.

Well I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to memorise all the possible combinations. There’s a much easier way. It’s just that nobody has ever told you.

First of all, the most important thing you need to learn about prepositions in English is that you absolutely have to learn them by category. As I said before, Sunday, the bus, TV, and the table have nothing in common.

What you do have, though, are four categories: time, transport, media and communication, and physical location.

When you learn them by category (NOT by preposition), they start to make a lot more sense.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]

Just like make and do, the first time you learn prepositions, a teacher will generally teach you some easy combinations. Let’s take, for example, prepositions for physical location. The first time you learnt in and on, your teacher probably told you that we say on the table, on the floor, on the chair, on your head.

Now the problem with this is that your brain is always trying to find the logic to everything that it learns.

Your brain sees these four combinations, tries to find a common factor, and gives it its own definition.

What thing do these four combinations have?

Well, they are all effects of gravity.

Gravity pulls things to Earth until the object remains on a flat horizontal surface.

So your brain thinks, “Great! On is an effect of gravity. Easy!”

Mistake.

Take a look at these other combinations: the clock is on the wall, the spider is on the ceiling, you write something on a piece of paper, your shoes are on your feet, your watch is on your wrist, your ring is on your finger.

Hmm…not an effect of gravity.

So what do all these and the previous combinations have in common?

Again, it’s not an effect of gravity, so remove that association from your head.

Any ideas?

Well, they all have contact with another surface.

On is for things that have contact with another surface. The surface the thing has contact with can be horizontal, vertical, upside-down, it doesn’t matter.

Just contact with another surface.

Now you know this logic, look for other examples of on for physical location and you will see that they are all for things that have contact with another surface.

So what’s in then?

It’s not into. That’s a preposition of movement.

Think of in as meaning “contained” or “part of a larger thing”. The water is in the glass, the glass is in a room, the room is in a building, the building is in a city, the city is in a country.

All contained or part of a larger thing.

At is used for the following common collocations: at home, at school, at university, at work, at the bus stop.

As I said, it’s easier to learn prepositions by category, and not by preposition. It’s the only way you can find the logic.

So now let me give you an express explanation of the other three main categories.

First up, times.

On is for days, and days only. If it’s a day, it’s on, and on is only used for that.

Clear?

On Sunday, on my birthday, on June 16th, on Christmas day,…

At is used for specific times and three exceptions. At 5 o’clock, at lunchtime, at bedtime, at midday,… And the three exceptions are at the weekend, at Christmas / Easter, at night.

Now the easy way to learn the rest is to say, “if it’s not a day, a specific time or the three exceptions, it’s in”.

And yes, that works, but there is some logic to in too. In is used for groups of time. I’ll list them here from smallest to largest.

In the morning (a group of hours in the day), in the week (Monday to Friday), in a month (a group of thirty days), in a season (a group of three months) in a year (twelve months), in a decade (ten years), in a century (One hundred years).

There’s a logic.

Next up, media and communications.

On TV, on the radio, on channel four, on Big Brother (a TV programme), on the Internet, on a website, on the phone, on Facebook.

In the newspaper, in an article, in an email, in a letter, in a magazine, in a book.

The logic?

All media and communication is on, except if it’s text-based, in which case it’s in.

The only exception here is that we say in a film.

Last up, transport!

On the bus, on a train, on a plane, on a ship, on a bike, on a horse.

In a car, in a taxi, in a lorry, in a truck.

In general, on is for open or public transport, and in is for closed, small, or personal transport.

Done. Easy.

Now go find other combinations and apply this logic to each one that you find. That’s the only way you’ll learn them for good.

Never learn all the possible combinations of a language point, there are thousands! Learn the logic behind the language point and apply that logic when you use it.

As with anything, try to establish what the absolute minimum is that you need to learn in order to be able to use a language point effectively.

This is not lazy learning, this is effective learning. It’s maximising the time you spend learning and practising.

The absolute minimum for prepositions is the logic or rule that each preposition has in a category.

For tenses, the absolute minimum is to learn only the tenses that are different from the ones in your language.

The absolute minimum for conditionals is knowing the translation in your own language, and learning the short structure in English.

Learning the absolute minimum will give you the absolute maximum results.

Useful language

Something makes sense or it doesn’t make sense

My Spanish students have a hard time learning prepositions

What on Earth does this mean?! What on Earth are you doing?!

Into is a preposition of movement: She poured the wine into the glass, rivers flow into the sea, put something into your pocket. (you can sometimes also use in for movement, but you can never use into for static location)