Prepositions are words that show relationships between things. For example: The books are on the bookshelf. The preposition “on” tells where the books are in relation to the bookshelf.

Prepositions often appear before a noun or a pronoun. For example:

Let’s hike up the mountain. The preposition “up” comes before the noun “mountain”.
His brother ran after The proposition “after” comes before the pronoun “him”.

Prepositions usually introduce information about:

the position or place of something/someone (example: at home, under the table)
the time something happens (example: before school, during the weekend)

Or prepositions can introduce general information about something (example: with the long tail, for a good reason).

There are about a hundred prepositions in English, and we can only learn them by using the language and by reading. Here are just a few prepositions: of, on, in, for, with, under, over, by, from, after, outside, inside, around, before, below, through, past, onto, at, with.