Esl English Grammar - In And On Prepositions

You will find the full article, lesson audio file and transcript here: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/esl-english-grammar-3/

Today we will pick two confusing English prepositions and practise using them. It might be something you need to help with your everyday English speaking practise or maybe your ESL, English grammar can confuse and we are here to help with lots of English language listening practice.

Even simple English prepositions are more difficult than they need to be, especially when you're listening to and speaking in English. For example On, couldn’t be a simpler preposition, right? True, if you were to set the context of the use of this preposition every time you used it, then it would be simple.

However, native English speakers cut corners when they are speaking and they expect the listener to fill in the gaps, based on the context of the conversation you are having.

Let me give you an example, I might say Let’s go play on the swing and I might then say Let’s move on, what I mean is Let’s move onto the next fun thing to do. The speaker assumes you understand the context of the conversation, they might even point at something while they say it, and this leaves you to guess that this use of on is actually onto. English grammar purists would say never end a sentence with a preposition.

A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
⭐ Winston S. Churchill

So how many prepositions are there? There are a lot of English language prepositions, about 150, but today we will pick the two tricky ones and focus on them. You really need not learn them all to have a perfectly normal conversation. I’d say just 50 of the most common ones would cover 90% of what you needed for regular conversations. Our course the 500 most common words covers a lot of them and lets you practice their use.