Passing English

THE ULTIMATE PREPOSITION RESOURCE

Problems with Prepositions are among the most common reason for mistakes and lost marks in exams for Advanced and Beginner students alike. I really believe that any student can improve their exam score by working hard at key language skills like this and becoming an expert.

The trouble is that they don’t really translate well into other languages so it is difficult to learn them. There is only ONE answer – PRACTICE!!!

 
Bad Grammar and Spelling but very cute cat from http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Here is a long list of excellent website exercises that are quick and fun to help you practise, practise, practise until you always choose the right preposition without thinking about it.

By using this Word file as your starting point you can make a note of the exercises that you have difficulty with and keep coming back to them until you can do them quickly, easily and correctly.

All the sites have lots of other brilliant exercises to correct other problems. They should all be in your favourites file where you can find them quickly to do some practice any time you have a spare 20 minutes to think about your English. So don’t forget to look at the rest of the site.

If you find that you are still having problems with them and want to use a book get a copy of Raymond Murphy’s English Grammar in Use (Intermediate) and work through the units there.

Start here with these excellent tables and the exercises that come with them from the ego4u website:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/prepositions

These are from the Language Project website:

http://www.languageproject.co.uk/free_exercises/elementary/elementary_prepositions.htm

Prepositions with People

http://www.languageproject.co.uk/free_exercises/exercise_page.php?ID=76

Prepositions – Study

http://www.languageproject.co.uk/free_exercises/exercise_page.php?ID=77

Prepositions of Place

http://www.languageproject.co.uk/free_exercises/exercise_page.php?ID=97

Prepositions of Time

http://www.languageproject.co.uk/free_exercises/exercise_page.php?ID=98

From the website 5-minute English: Time and Date:

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/mar18.htm

The following links are from the excellent ESL website a4esl.

Here are the Preposition exercises from there in order of difficulty. Make sure you bookmark the site and go back and use it for other things too.

Prepositions often confused by Donna Tatsuki

http://a4esl.org/q/j/dt/mc-confusedprep.html

A preposition crossword:

http://iteslj.org/cw/1/vm-prep.htm

About, at, for or to by Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/j/vm/fb-prep.html

At, in or on by Nuala Ivic

http://a4esl.org/q/j/ni/fb-prepositions.html

Prepositions by Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/j/vm/mc-prep.html

At in or on by Jack Bradshaw

http://a4esl.org/q/j/jb/fb-prepositions.html

In, At or On by Douglas Gilbert

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9704/dg-in-at-on.html

By Ilker utlu

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz48miu.htm

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz46miu.htm

By Charles Kelly

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz98bck.htm

By Barbara Donnelly

http://a4esl.org/q/h/fb-bd-preposition.html

4 by Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/prepos01.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/prepos02.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/prepos03.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/prep01.html

By Yanti Nading

http://a4esl.org/q/h/0001/yn-prepositions.html

By Leticia Bradley

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/inatplaces.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/inonat.html

At on and in used in Time and Dates

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/atonintime.html

At, by, with

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/atbywith.html

Slightly more difficult maybe:

by Senora Edmilson

http://a4esl.org/q/h/0101/es-prepositions.html

By Violeta Tsoneva

http://a4esl.org/q/f/x/xz98mvt.htm

By Charles Kelly

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz65fck.htm

After, for or since by Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/j/vm/fb-afterforsince.html

By Charles Kelly

http://a4esl.org/q/j/ck/fb-prepositions.html

By Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/j/vm/ci-prep.html

Charles Kelly:

http://a4esl.org/q/j/ck/mc-prepositions.html

In, on or up by Richard Davies

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9801/rd-inonup.html

By Cheryl Newman Maris

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9704/cn-prepos.html

Level 2 by Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/prep02.html

Level 3 by Vera Mello

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/prep03.html

Astronomy quiz to practise prepositions by Joan M Diez

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9901/jd-astronomy.html

DIFFICULT

Quiz about Manatees (very large and not very beautiful animals that live in the sea) by Alexandra Sanchez

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz36mas.htm

Particles in Conversation by Ted Power

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle2.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle3.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle4.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle5.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle6.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/tp/mc-particle7.html

US Holidays and Celebrations by Vera Mello. This is a useful exercise for ECCE students

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/holidays.html

Prepositions for the Writing about Graphs task in the IELTS exam. Also good for CPE students. By Enda Tuomey

http://www.writefix.com/graphs/preps.htm

 

Finished? Do them again!