Let's discuss 'prepositions' today.
Preposition
A
preposition is a word that comes in front of a noun or a pronoun to show its
relationship with other words in a sentence. Examples
1.He is sitting on
the chair.
2.My friend is
annoyed with me.
3.The dog is under the table.
4.The children are
hiding themselves behind the hedge.
In
the above sentences, the prepositions are: on,
with, under and behind.
These
prepositions are showing various relationships of the nouns and pronouns with
other words, i.e. sitting (verb) and the chair (noun) in the first sentence,
annoyed (verb) with the pronoun 'me' in the second, dog and the table in the
third and hiding and the hedge in the fourth one.
1.Use of At
At
denotes time.
1.Our school begins at 8 o’clock.
2.Please meet me at 4:30 p.m.
3.Would you like to
come at noon?
4.The earthquake came
at night.
5.
All birds and animals wake up at dawn.
6.The travellers
reached their destination at
the daybreak.
Similarly at is
used with following expressions:
At this time, at
this moment, at this critical hour/ juncture
At is
also used when we talk about festivals.
· My brother will come
from abroad at Diwali.
Similarly,
we use at with other festivals: at Holi, at Christmas, at Dussehra festival
In front of small
towns, cities and villages, ‘at’ is used but ‘in’ is used in front of big
cities.
1.I will spend my old
age at my village.
2.She is studying
these days at Amritsar.
3.He is trying to
find some job in Delhi.
4.In Mumbai life is
very busy.
‘At’ denotes a
target as we find in the following sentences:
1.The hunter aimed at the dove.
2.We should not laugh
at the poor.
3.Why are you gazing
at me.
To show the rates of things:
1.This book is
selling at a very high price.
2.Onions are being
sold at Rs. 20 per Kg. these days.
3.It is very risky when you drive at a high speed.
Some expressions used with at show temporary
activities.
1.I always found her at her study whenever I went to meet her.
2.Do not disturb your
father. He is at work now.
3.Are the children at play?
Study
the following sentences also:
1.I was married at the age of 21.
2.You may meet a
crowd of beggars at the railway
station.
3.The coin is lying at the bottom of water in the glass.
4. At this stage, I cannot predict anything.
5.The ball fell at
some distance.
Continued...
