Prepositions: discussions and interactive exercises

Prepositions are words which are usually followed by a noun or pronoun, and which express relationships, for example, of time or place For a better understanding of what prepositions are, please surf to the websites listed below. Clicking the blue links will take you to the specific pages where the definitions, classifications or interactive exercises are located, while clicking the website name will take you to the home page.

[1] Prepositions: Locators in Time and Place, from Capital Community College Guide to Good Grammar
[2] Prepositions, from Grammar Monster (British English)
[3] Prepositions, from English Daily
[4] Prepositions, from Interlink Language Centers
[5] Problems with prepositions, from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuations
[6] Prepositions, from Using English
[7] Prepositions and Nouns, from English Language Centre Study Zone
[8] Lesson 8 - Prepositions, from My English Grammar
[9] Index to articles on Prepositions, from Learning English Online www.englisch-hilfen.de (English version)
[10] Prepositions, from The OWL at Purdue)

Listed below are links to interactive quizzes and exercises in prepositions from the best ESL and EFL resources on the Internet. Clicking the blue links will take you to the specific pages where the quizzes or exercises are, while clicking the website names will take you to the home pages. Take time to browse these excellent websites; they are consistently good and fast loading. Besides the activities and exercises listed below, these sites generously offer, free of charge, a tremendous range of valuable resources for ESL and EFL teachers and students.

In answering the interactive exercises, you should follow carefully the prompts and directions. You should read each sentence or part aloud before clicking the answer you think is right. After the correct answer is displayed, think it over as to why it is the correct answer. (Please take note that the correct answer may depend on whether the exercise comes from an American English or a British English website.) After doing so, read the complete sentence again aloud with the correct answer.

To train yourself to think in English, try to recite the sentences with the correct answers from memory and at your full speaking volume. Or you can ask a friend to read out loud the sentences with the correct answers and you repeat them without looking at the computer screen.

[01] Exercises in prepositions from Activities for ESL Students

Prepositions: At, In and On (Nuala Ivic)
Prepositions (Vera Mello)
Prepositions: At, In & On (Jack Bradshaw)
In, At or On (Douglas Gilbert)
Prepositions (Charles Kelly)
Prepositions 1 (Ilker Utlu)
Prepositions 2 (Ilker Utlu)
Prepositions (Barbara Donnelly)
Prepositions I (Vera Mello)
Prepositions II (Vera Mello)
Prepositions III (Vera Mello)
Prepositions - Level 1 (Vera Mello)
Prepositions (Yanti Nading)
In-At with Places (Letitia Bradley)
In-On-At (Letitia Bradley)
Prepositions (Edmilson Sa)
Prepositions - Type in the Answer (Charles Kelly)
After, For or Since (Vera Mello)
Prepositions (Charles Kelly)
Correct or Incorrect - Prepositions (Vera Mello)
Prepositions (Charles Kelly)
Pick a Particle: In, On or Up (Richard Davies)
Prepositions (Cheryl Newman-Marris)
Prepositions - Level 2 (Vera Mello)
Prepositions - Level 3 (Vera Mello)
Astronomy (Preposition Quiz) (Joan M. Diez)
The Manatee (A Quiz on Prepositions) (Alexandra Sanchez)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 1 (Ted Power)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 2 (Ted Power)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 3 (Ted Power)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 4 (Ted Power)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 5 (Ted Power)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 6 (Ted Power)
Particles in Conversation Questions - 7 (Ted Power)
USA Celebrations & Holidays (Vera Mello)

Tenses

Tense

Definition

Tense describes the time of an action or state. There are three types of tense:

Present
Past
Future

1. Present
Types of Present as following:
Present simple / indefinite
Present progressive / continuous
Present perfect
Present perfect progressive / continuous

2. Past
Types of Past as following:
Past simple
Past progressive
Past perfect
Past perfect progressive

3. Future
Types of Future as following:
Future simple
Future Progressive
Future perfect

Models Auxiliary Verbs

Models (Auxiliary Verbs)

Should

Should Have

Should Be

Should Have Been

Must (Obligation)

Must (Logical)

Must Have

Must Have Been

Must Be

Can

Could

Could Have

May / Might

May / Might Be

May / Might Have

May / Might Have Been

WH Question

WH-Question

Who (Person)

Who for Subject
When we don’t know about subject and we want to know about subject then we use who + affirmative

Construction
Who + affirmative sentence

Example
Ali is my friend.
Who is my friend?
Alina is my teacher.
Who is my teacher?
Sir Nafees teaches us
Who teaches us?
Ahmed plays with me.
Who plays with me?
Ali is talking with him.
Who is talking with him?
She is speaking English.
Who is speaking English?
He has got 1st position.
Who has got 1st position?
Ahmed has been watching TV for 1 hour.
Who has been watching TV for 1 hour?
She has known me for 2 years.
Who has known me for 2 years?
Ali bought a new car.
Who bought a new car?
She was going with me.
Who was going with me?
He had gone there with you.
Who had gone there with you?
She had had a car for 3 years.
Who had had a car for 3 years?
Who for Subject

When we don’t know about object and we want to know the object then we use who + interrogative or interronegative sentence.

Construction
Who + interrogative / interronegative sentence

Example
Who do you play with?
Who are you waiting for?
Who is he beating?
Who has he gone with?
Who has he been playing with for 2 hours?
Who did he teach?
Who was he sending message to?
Whom was he sending message to?
WHAT (Thing) vast choice (کیا)
WHY (Reason) (کیوں)
HOW (Manner) (کیسے)
WHOSE (Possession) (کس کا)
WHERE (Place) (کہاں)
WHEN (Time) (کب)
WHICH (Kind) limited choice (کونسا / کونسی)
What
What is your name?
What do you do in your past time?
What is he doing here?
What has he got? (اس نے کیا حاصل کیا)
Why
Why does he come here?
Why are you teasing him?
Why did you go there?
Why were you beating him?
How
How do you do?
How is your work going?
How did he enter in your home?
Whose
Whose pen is this?
Whose is the owner of this car?
Where
Where do you live?
Where does he come from?
Where are you going?
When
When will you go for shopping?
When will the party be started?
When will he come?
Which
Which kind of food do you like to eat?
Which kind of person do you like?

TAG Question

Tag Question

Definition
Falling intonation, speaker thinks the statement is true Noman knows that it is lovely day & he I inviting Ali to continue the conversation the tag is not a real question.

Construction
Positive statement + negative tag question
Tag Question
H.V + n’t + Pronoun

Example
It is lovely day, isn’t it?
She looks pretty, doesn’t she?
They are good players of Pakistan, aren’t they?
He is going to Dubai, isn’t he?
She has got 1st position, hasn’t she?

Definition
Rising intonation, when speaker is less sure & tag question is a real question.

Construction
Negative statement + positive tag
Positive Tag
H.V + Pronoun

Example
They haven’t done their work, have they?
She isn’t good student, is she?
They haven’t been to Dubai, have they?
It isn’t getting dark, is it?
She isn’t going there, is she?
We use “so” after positive statement & “neither” after negative statement.
Construction
So/neither + H.V + Sub

Example
He is hungry, so I am (I am hungry too)
She got 1st position, so did I (I got 1st position too)
Muhammad Yousuf has made 200 runs, so has Younus Khan
She likes tea, so does Ali (Ali likes tea too)
She hasn’t submitted her assignment, neither have I (I haven’t submitted my assignment too)
He has not eaten anything since morning, neither have I?
They did not take class, neither did Mohsin
I didn’t come yesterday, neither did he?

Parts of Speech

· Noun
· Pronoun
· Adjective
· Parts of Speech (Table)


Noun

Definition

Noun is the name of any person, place, thing and activity.

Example

Person
Sir Imran
Quaid-e-Azam
Ali
Sara

Place
Neelam English Learning & Computer Centre
Saddar

Thing
Marker
Pen

Activity
Teaching
Watching

Pronoun

Definition

A word which used in place of noun is called pronoun.

Example

Ali = He
Sara = She
Ali and Asad = They
A pen = It
Horse = He
Mare = She

Example

Ali is a nice person.
He is a nice person.
Ali always plays prank.
He always plays prank.
Sara does a job in call centre.
She does a job in call centre.
Ali and Asad often talk to each other.
They often talk to each other.
A horse has a bushy hair.
He has a bushy hair.


Adjective

Definition

A word which describes the quality, quantity and number of noun & pronoun is called adjective.

Example

He is best.
She is late.
I have three markers.
She is glutton.
He is very ugly.
She is beautiful girl.




parts of Speech (Table)

Pronoun
Possessive Pronoun
Objective Pronoun

I
My
Me
He
His
Him
She
Her
Her
It
Its
It
You
Your
You
They
Their
Them
Ali
His
Him
Sara
Her
Her

What is Grammer

What is Grammar?

Definition

The parts of a sentence are the subject, verb, object, adverbial and complement. A sentence starts with subjects and verb.

Adverb

An adverb or prepositional phrases of a sentence is called adverbial.

Example

I write on the table.
They are in class.
The board is on my foot

Complement
It talks about subject is called complement.

Example

She is a singer.
They are good person.
He is nice man.

Direct Object
It receives an action directly. We normally use in some thing.

Indirect Object
It receives an action indirectly. We normally use in some body.

Construction
· Subject + verb I
· Subject + verb I + adverbial
· Subject + verb I + complement
· subject + verb I + object
· subject + verb I + indirect object + dir object

Verb
A verb is a word that shows an action or state.

Adverb
A word which gives addition meaning of verb is called adverb.

Example

She speaks loudly.
He speaks English fluently.
They run fast.
A word which used in place of noun is called pronoun.

Action Verb
Play, watch, teach, catch, gorge, etc…

State Verb
Understand, believe, belong to, be, have, want, admire, adore etc…
That verb which belongs to our sense is called non progressive verbs. We can’t use (ING) form in these verbs.

There are 5 types of verbs:
1. see
2. smell
3. feel
4. understand
5. hear

Action Verb
It shows an action that is action verb.

State Verb
It doesn’t show any action.

Verb
Action verb
State verb
Transitive verb
Intransitive verb
(Required an object)
(It cannot have an object)
I beat him
He is at nipa
I write a letter
He is sitting on the floor
We speak English
She is nice person

State Verb

Be as a state verb:

It gives introduction about:
Profession
Condition
Position
Relation
Characteristic

Be

1st form = is, are, am (Present)
2nd form = was, were (Past)
3rd form = been (Past connected with present)

Profession

She is a teacher.
He is a doctor.
They are labor.
I m business man.
Is she a teacher?
She is not a teacher.

Condition

He is happy.
She is sad.
They are late.
She is good mood.
She is sad / gloomy.
I am angry today.

Position

They are in class room.
She is at Sadar.
He is in NELCC.

Relation

She is my sister
He is the father of Ahmed
They are my friend
She is her crony friend
He is my father in law

Characteristics

She is a nice person.
He is very helpful.
They are scatty.
He is virtuous person.
I m generous.
Ali is an intelligent boy.

Have as a state verb:
It talks about possession, relation, illness, characteristic, quantity.

Possession

I have a car.
He has two pens.
They have bat but not ball.
She has a dog.
Ali has a pair of shoes.
I have a doubt of his intension.

Relation

I have good sister.
She has two siblings.
He has three brothers and two sisters.

Illness

She has sore throat.
He has headache.
I have floe today.

Characteristic

She has good nature.
They have very polite personality.
Ali has backache.



1st person
Singular
plural
I
We

2nd person
Singular
plural
You
You

3rd person
Singular
plural
He, She, It, Singular name
They, Plural name