Prepositions Explained (Stop Making these Mistakes)

Se podría decir que las preposiciones son una de las frustraciones más grandes para la gente. Te han enseñado mil reglas (con mil excepciones), pero pararte a pensar qué regla tienes que usar mientras vas hablando es inviable. Este episodio de English with Dane propone una manera más manejable y eficiente para lidiar con las preposiciones para que te cueste menos navegarlas .

Transcript

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Hey, what's up? What's going on? Welcome to another episode of English with Dane, a podcast designed to make you feel good about your English. As always, I'm your host, Dane, and you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at English with Dane. The main focus of this episode, as you have correctly deduced from the title, is prepositions. But we're not just going to talk about in, on, and at. We're going to get a little bit deeper for this one. We're going to talk about why prepositions are so tricky, particularly for Spanish speakers, and how we can work around this. To work around something, by the way, means to adjust your plan to fit around something you can't change. We'll also go through some of the most common mistakes I hear people make. We'll talk about natural variation and the way prepositions are used in the US versus the UK. But most importantly, we're going to cover an underlooked aspect of preposition combinations to make sure you walk away from this episode really having learned something. All right, let's get into it. You are listening to episode 26 of season two of English with Dane. Hit it. Okay, we have officially started the show, so let's talk about prepositions. Prepositions are these tiny little words that most people underestimate until they start learning English and realize that they are everywhere, quietly holding everything together. You can think of them as the glue, el pegamento, the glue between your ideas or the bridge between you and what you're trying to say. In, on, at, two, for, small, invisible, yet crucial. They give shape to thoughts, direction to actions, and depth to feelings. They give shape to thoughts, direction to actions, and depth to feelings. They're messy because they don't follow perfect rules, and they are arguably, se podría decir, they are arguably the most frustrating thing about the English language for learners around the world. But they also make the language flexible, expressive, and human, right? So let's stop trying to fight them and let's not let them frustrate us. If you have a toxic relationship with prepositions, consider this episode your intervention. After today, you're burying the hatchet, buen expian, you're burying the hatchet and you are starting fresh. To bury the hatchet means to make peace after a fight or disagreement. A hatchet is a small axe, un hacha. So the first thing I want to talk about is why prepositions drive people crazy. What's so hard about them? I don't think that the problem is you being bad at grammar or being bad at applying language rules to what you say. I think English is almost setting you up to fail. Prepositions in English are abstract and they don't often translate cleanly, de manera limpia or perfectly cleanly. In Spanish, we use N for pretty much everything, while English asks you to choose between several options. When a native Spanish speaker speaks English, he or she has to suddenly make distinctions they never had to think about. So of course you're going to mess up from time to time. It would be crazy if you didn't. What makes things worse is that prepositions are function words, right? They carry subtle relationships, relaciones sutiles, they carry subtle relationships with time, space, cause, possession, etc. And they rarely have any meaning on their own, solas. The really tricky thing about prepositions is that they resist logic. You can't reason your way, no puedes razonar o deducir, you can't reason your way to proud of versus proud for, proud for being wrong, of course. I feel like you just have to hear it enough times throughout months or years of exposure, throughout, a lo largo de, throughout months or years of exposure. And this leads me to my next point, which is a thought that popped into my head while writing this episode. Is the way we teach people prepositions really helping after we've covered the basics? Or is it forcing everyone to have the same over-generalized approach? I taught English in classrooms for a decade, and time after time we would give everyone the same blanket explanation. Blanket as in manta, by the way, like it covers everything. So the same blanket explanation or the same general explanation. I would say something like this we use in for months, years, large areas, and times of the day, in October, in 2025, in Spain, in the morning. We use on for days and surfaces on Tuesday on the wall. And we use at for specific times and places at 5 p.m. at the station. Naturally, though, after this explanation, we have to talk about an endless amount of exceptions as they come up, cuando surgen as they come up. Like, why is it at night and not in night? It's in the morning, right? In the afternoon, in the evening, but at night. Do you think I have a good answer to that? Of course not. I just have to say, yeah, I don't know. It just is. Which is not a fun thing to say over and over and over again when these very reasonable questions come up, cuando surgen, when they come up. Why do we say on the internet? I don't know, but we do. You just have to hear it enough times. You're on a bus, on a plane, on a train, but you're obviously not standing on top of these things. You're in them. You are 100% physically inside these objects, yet we say on. But if I were learning English, I would 100% say in a trip. And if I asked my teacher about why I'm on a trip, I'd probably get another rule like, yes, we use on for trips, voyages, adventures, and things you embark on in general. Cool. And then I just have to remember that. And if something that is kind of like a trip comes up, I'll remember this rule and deduce that I should use on. I think it's maybe better to talk about the deeper reason why we use on for these things. The reason we use on for trips and things of the sort is because the English language actually treats these journeys as metaphorical paths, caminos metaphoricos, as metaphorical paths that you are standing or walking on. That's why English is also a very physical and visual language, and another reason why prepositions are so unique. I think exploring that as a concept, instead of applying a general rule, is really valuable because it not only provides a better tool or mechanism to arrive at the correct preposition in the future, but it also activates and satisfies your curiosity, which leads to a longer lasting impression, one that you can actually use and internalize over time. I hope that makes sense because I think that's a really important concept. Aquitango, another quick example of a preposition making language really physical and visual. The verb is to loom over, loom spelled L-O-O-M, for those of you who are just listening. Loom over. If you don't know what that means, I'll explain it like this. You know when you feel like there's something hanging over you, like a deadline or a conversation you've been avoiding, but you need to have, and you know it's coming and you're dreading it, that feeling is to loom over. It's like this dark shadow that's hanging over you. The verb to loom originated to mean exactly that: a large dark thing appearing in the background. To that verb, you add the preposition over, and suddenly you have this kind of feeling and visual of something dark hanging over you, like a creepy shadow. The memory of that night still loomed over him. I feel like I can see that memory following him around like a rain cloud in a cartoon. This is what I mean when I say that prepositions often add dimension, action, or depth to feelings and expression in general. Now, I'm not just hating on how we teach prepositions in general because I understand that we need these basic rules for people who are just starting out so they can get their foot in the door and start to use the language right away and communicate on a basic level. But once we have a certain level of English, I think we should stop trying to figure out which rule applies to which preposition and context, and instead just keep noticing them in use. And when we're unsure of what preposition to use, we can look it up and maybe just go a little bit deeper beyond the answer and just read up on what's happening behind the scenes. A more elegant way to say this is that prepositions are idiomatic and collocational, which means that they depend on what's around them, not their dictionary meaning. They don't follow logic necessarily, they follow habit. So having a rule-based approach and just trying to deduce which one is the right one to use is a recipe for frustration. Stop trying to figure out all the rules. Then there's a topic of variation, on the weekend versus at the weekend. Which one is correct? Both. In the US, people say on the weekend, and in the UK, you'll hear at the weekend. Some people will say different to, some different than, some different from, which means I can't tell you which one to use. This one is interesting. In some areas of the world, people say in the team, while in others people say on the team. In the US, people use on the team because they imagine the person being on the roster, maybe stuck on the door of a high school gym. In the UK, however, people say in the team because they imagine the team as a group you belong inside. That's a small change that actually significantly affects how you perceive reality. Okay, let's get into the real meat and potatoes of this episode. I want to talk about adjective and preposition combinations. We often obsess about verb and preposition combinations, like with phrasal verbs, look on, look at, look after, look over. But where most people make the majority of mistakes and where most people can actually improve quickly is the adjective and preposition combination. You're good at singing, you're proud of your kids, you are responsible for something, you are interested in tennis, and so on and so forth. These little pairings are often what separate you from sounding okay to sounding really natural, and they are often the mark of a high-level English speaker. But we're not going to talk about rules because now we know that they are just setting us up to fail at this point. We're going to talk about collocations. Unlike the prepositions for verbs, these are fixed. They don't change, and we like that. Collocations are great to know because they reveal a lot about how a language is used. We know heavy and rain go together a lot, so instead of saying it was raining a lot, you can say there was heavy rain in the area. Collocations help you blend in and sound more like someone who understands the use of the language. That's how I want you to approach learning these adjective and preposition combinations because they have been cemented in language through volume of use, which means you can't go wrong. Let's take a look at a few that trip people up or that make people make mistakes. You are focused on something, not focused in something. So before we talk about the new additions to the team, we need to focus on trimming the budget, for example. I've heard focus in way too many times. Don't say that anymore. I get it, I can focus in, so you say focus in, but a partir de ahora, ya no dices focus in, solo focus on. Excited about something, not excited for something. Excited for is used when you talk about someone else, like, oh, congratulations on the baby. I'm really excited for you guys. But you are excited about your trip. You're not excited for the trip, the trip itself cannot feel anything at all. Then we have rude or polite to, not with, rude or polite to. Someone is rude to the staff, you are polite to your teacher. Look, replace it with mean and you'll see why it sounds weird. He was mean with the staff. Oof. He was rude to the staff. Then we have involved in versus involved with. Both are correct, depending on the context. You are involved in a project, you are involved in a situation, you're involved in a case, but if you use involved with, usually someone, then there are connotations of a romantic entanglement. And this last one really bugs me for some reason. Related to and not related with. Now let's get practical and we'll finish up with this. So here's how I want you to practice these or any adjective preposition combinations. Three steps. Step number one, first I want you to change your mentality. Don't think that you are learning prepositions. Think about it more like you're collecting them. They're just these little pieces of language that you heard together at some point, in algún momento, that you heard together at some point. And remember, this is because they are collocational. So they are used together a lot. The goal is to remember patterns, not rules, and noticing these patterns is half the battle. Step number two, write down combinations that you hear together. Get your notebook out and physically write things like, I'm proud of my work. I'm excited about the trip next week. I'm excited for my friend because he got a new job. I'm obsessed with this new show I've been watching. Write them down like that, in full sentences. That part's important because our brains love context. And if you don't give your brain context, it won't retain information long term as efficiently. And step three, say them out loud a few times a day. Maybe sing a song that has them, maybe learn some lines from your favorite movie that has these adjective preposition combinations in them. That's up to you. My advice is to keep adding to your list and once or twice a day, just go over your list. Repasat, go over your list and say them out loud. And I'm going to insist, I'm going to insist that you say these out loud. I promise it works. Trust the process. That's it. It's pretty straightforward. Bastante directo or simple. It's pretty straightforward. Try this for a few weeks and see how you feel after that. I guarantee that you'll feel more confident and more loose más suelta o suelta when you speak. I think this collocations over rules system works better for learning English in general, not just prepositions. It's not about having a perfect system with all of your rules in place. It's about using your English to connect and to express your ideas in a way that is true to who you are and adapting to how English is actually used in the real world. And I think this is the best way to do that. Some of you are using studying grammar as procrastination, I bet. You're learning everything you can so one day you'll be ready to speak. You're not going to get to where you want to be if you don't do the uncomfortable stuff. So keep that in mind. All right, that's it for this episode of English with Dane. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got something from it. And if you did, leave a comment and share it with someone who you think would also enjoy it. Let's keep this thing going. So thanks for watching. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next week. Later.