NEVER Make These "Preposition" Mistakes

追加: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Is it let's meet in December or let's meet on December? And should I say I'm in the mall or I'm at the mall? Do you ever wonder which preposition do I need?

[00:00:14]Today you'll fix the most common preposition mistakes I see from all students, even my advanced students.

[00:00:22]Welcome back to G4 English. Of course, I'm Jennifer. Now, let's get started.

[00:00:26]So, which is it? Let's meet in December or let's meet on December.

[00:00:32]It's let's meet in December. You need in plus month, season, or year. So, you could say let's meet again in December.

[00:00:44]We're going on vacation in summer. I started working here in 2015.

[00:00:51]Don't worry about taking these notes. I explain everything in the free lesson PDF. You can find the link in the description. Now, what about this? Let's meet in December 15th. Let's meet on December 15th.

[00:01:07]Which one do you need?

[00:01:10]Let's meet on December 15th. So, notice when you use the day of the month, you must change the preposition and use on.

[00:01:20]And you also use on for the day of the week. We met on Tuesday. My flight leaves on Tuesday, April 12th. So when you add the month plus day, because you still have day of the week, you use on.

[00:01:38]Now, you could also say, "My flight leaves on Tuesday, April 12th, 9:05 a.m." Which preposition do you need? Of course, at 9:05 a.m. So, let's summarize. You use in plus month, season, year, on plus day of month, day of week, at plus time. Speaking of time, how about this? I always study in the morning, at the morning.

[00:02:11]You need in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. So, you could say, "Let's meet in the afternoon." You could also say though, let's meet this afternoon. So notice if it's this, you don't use the preposition, let's meet this afternoon. Now, you could be specific and say let's meet at noon. At noon, because noon is 12 p.m. and we use at plus specific time. Here's a common mistake. I always study in the evening.

[00:02:51]I always study at night. So you just have to memorize that in the morning, afternoon, evening. But the expression is at night. And natives commonly use at night. So make sure you add it to your vocabulary.

[00:03:07]Now, which is correct? I'm at the mall.

[00:03:11]I'm in the mall. What do you think?

[00:03:15]Both are correct. Hopefully, you said that. Now, although they're both correct, the meaning does change. If you say, "I'm at the mall," this is a general location. I could be outside. I could be in the parking lot, or I could be inside anywhere. So, it's a general location. If you say, "I'm in the mall."

[00:03:40]This is more specific. I'm inside. So, not the parking lot, not outside. I'm inside and it's an enclosed area. So, if your friend calls and says, "What are you up to?" You might reply and say, "I'm at home." Notice that preposition there, at home. I'm at home just doing some yard work.

[00:04:04]I'm at home just watching TV. So, you could be outside or inside. Now, if your spouse asks you, "Where did you put the new towels?" You could say, "They're in the hall closet, an enclosed space.

[00:04:21]They're in the kitchen, an enclosed space. They're in the garage, an enclosed space." Even though physically it's considered outside of the home, but it's an enclosed space. In the garage.

[00:04:35]Sometimes I hear students say, "I'm interested about this position." That's not correct. What preposition do you need? I'm interested in this position.

[00:04:48]So, the expression is to be conjugated, interested, always with the ed, the preposition in, and then you can use a noun, the position, or a jiren. So using the garand maybe you would say I'm interested in learning English with Jennifer. Does that describe you? If it does put yes yes yes in the comments. Last week a student said I always listen a podcast in the morning. What's the mistake here?

[00:05:22]The student forgot the preposition. Now which preposition do you need? I always listen to a podcast in the morning. In the morning. So when you learn a specific verb or a specific expression, you need to pay attention to what preposition you need if you need a preposition because you would absolutely say, "I always watch a YouTube video in the morning." So no preposition. Or I always read the news in the morning. No preposition. I also heard a student say she starts her day by replying messages.

[00:06:04]What's the mistake here?

[00:06:07]Again, the preposition was missing. And which preposition do you need? She starts her day by replying to messages.

[00:06:16]You reply to something like a message or someone like your teacher. But remember what I just said. Not all verbs or expressions require prepositions. So you would say she checks messages. She answers messages. She returns messages.

[00:06:36]No preposition. But if you use the verb reply, you must use the preposition. She replies to messages. Don't say I'm responsible of sales. You must say I'm responsible for sales. The expression here is to be conjugated responsible the preposition for and then a noun or a gerand. So using the gerand you could say she was responsible for hiring new employees. So the preposition is for but of course you need to pay attention to the rest of the grammar like conjugating your verb to be with the subject and time reference. In this case, past simple, third person singular. Or you could use a noun and ask a question. Who's responsible for this project for something? Don't say she complained of the traffic. What do you need? She complained about the traffic. So if you complain, it means you have a lot of negative commentary.

[00:07:46]Oh, the traffic. Why is it taking so long? Oh, I'm going to be late. I hate the traffic. So, you could say he complained about the noise. They complained about the long wait. Let's look at the verb agree because you can use the preposition with, on, about. But when you use them depends. If you agree with someone, I agree with you. You can also agree with something. I agree with your idea. So you agree with someone.

[00:08:26]Now the something is generally their opinion, their idea or their decision.

[00:08:32]You can agree on a price. You can agree on a plan. So in this case, you're using agree plus on with a shared decision or a specific outcome. You can also use agree about. For example, we agreed about the issue. People don't agree about politics. So we use agree about when it's a general topic or general discussion. Notice the prepositions here. I could ask, why are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me? This means your eyes are on me.

[00:09:14]Why are you looking into me? What does this mean? So, I changed the preposition from at to into. Why are you looking into me? What does that mean? Well, you're researching me, my personal information, my background. Why are you looking into me? Why are you looking after me? Maybe you know this one. To look after someone or something like a plant. You're caring for me. One verb, three different prepositions, three different meanings. This is why you need to be so careful about which preposition you use because it can change the meaning. Let's look at the verb pay. You can use this without a preposition. I paid the gas bill. You can use this with a preposition. I paid for the gas. So notice the difference. I paid the bill.

[00:10:13]So you use pay plus what you're paying the invoice or the amount of money. So you could say I paid $50 because here it's just the amount of money. But you could also say I paid $50 for the gas.

[00:10:32]So you pay for the thing or the service received. So the thing in this case is the gas. You would say he paid the bill.

[00:10:44]He paid for dinner. Because dinner is the thing being received. Don't say I invited him for the meeting. In this case, you want the preposition to. I invited him to the meeting. So you invite someone to and then a meeting, a party, an event, or even a place. So you could ask, "Who did you invite to your wedding?" Or, "She invited me to her house for coffee and dessert." So notice to her house for something. Coffee and dessert. Now, this is why many natives say, "She invited me for coffee and dessert." This is why students sometimes get confused and use for instead of to.

[00:11:38]Invite to a location or event. Invite for the thing, coffee and dessert. Don't say congratulations for your promotion.

[00:11:50]I hear congratulations often used with the incorrect preposition. You must say congratulations on your promotion. So you could say congratulations on. Now because on is a preposition, you need the jiren verb on landing the new client.

[00:12:10]Native speakers often say congrats.

[00:12:13]Congrats on your new job. Or you can simply use the word without a preposition. I knew you'd get the promotion. Congrats. Congrats. Don't say she specializes on forensic accounting.

[00:12:29]You specialize in something. She specializes in forensic accounting. So here it's the verb to specialize conjugated the preposition in and then a gerand or noun. You could say our firm specializes in corporate law. Now you could use a different word and say corporate law is our specialty. In that case specialty is a noun. So no preposition is used in that example.

[00:13:00]Notice the prepositions here. He apologized to the client for the mistake. So you apologized to someone.

[00:13:10]You apologized for something. And that something can be a noun or a gerant. She apologized for spilling coffee on his new shirt. So, in this case, the to the someone isn't specified. We're just focusing on the for plus the action. She made a mistake, but she already apologized to Brad. So, you don't have to use both of them together. So, your choice of two or for depends on if you're focusing on someone or the thing.

[00:13:45]Don't say she succeeded on the exam. Use she succeeded in the exam. You could say he succeeded in building a successful company. So notice the sentence structure is to succeed. Succeeded is the past simple. So to succeed conjugated, the preposition in and then either a noun or a garand. Don't say she's capable to lead the team. So here to lead to is an infinitive marker. To lead is the infinitive, but you don't want the infinitive. You want a preposition and then because it's a preposition, your verb and ing. So you want she's capable of leading the team.

[00:14:35]Now maybe you change the sentence structure slightly and say he's more than capable of managing this project or even make it negative. He isn't capable of managing this project. Don't say she insisted to pay the bill. So here again to is an infinitive marker but you don't want the infinitive. You want a preposition plus your jarn verb. She insisted on paying the bill. But remember that you only add the preposition if you specify the something or the action. So the object of that verb. But if I ask you why did she pay the bill?

[00:15:22]It's already obvious that we're talking about the bill. So I could simply reply and say she insisted.

[00:15:30]She insisted on paying. I can give more information, but I can also just use the verb. She insisted. Prepositions are a difficult topic in English grammar. Do you want me to keep helping you with prepositions? If you do, put yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Put yes, yes, yes in the comments below. And of course, make sure you like this lesson, share it with your friends, and subscribe so you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

[00:15:55]And you can get this free speaking guide where I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. You can click here to download it or find the link in the description. And here's another lesson I know you'll love. Watch it now.