Prepositions of Movement Visual Vocabulary Lesson
Hi, I’m Oli.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn about prepositions
of movement, like ‘around’, ‘past’,
‘towards’, ‘through’ and more.
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Now, let’s look at how to use prepositions
of movement in English.
‘Around’ can have two different meanings.
First, ‘around’ can mean ‘in a circle’
The train is going around the track.
‘The earth revolves around its axis.’
‘Around’ can also mean ‘in different
directions’.
For example, if you say ‘we walked around
the city centre’, you mean that you walked
to different parts of the centre.
Here’s another example.
He looked around to check that everything
seemed OK.
He looked around, so he looked in different
directions.
Left, right, up, and so on.
‘Along’ means ‘in a straight line’
plus ‘parallel to’ something.
She’s walking along the stream.
The woman walked along the street.
He’s cycling along the road.
Instead of ‘along’ you can often use ‘up’
or ‘down’ instead in conversational English.
For example, instead of ‘He’s cycling
along the road’, you could say ‘He’s
cycling up the road,’ or ‘He’s cycling
down the road.’
Confusingly, ‘up’ and ‘down’ often
mean exactly the same thing!
Sometimes, there’s a small difference.
‘Up’ can mean ‘towards you’
and ‘down’ can mean ‘away from you’
So, these two sentences…
…could mean the same thing.
They could also be different.
The first sentence – with ‘up’ – could
mean that she’s walking towards you, and
the second sentence – with ‘down’ – could
mean that she’s walking away from you.
The couple walked under the bridge.
She passed under the fallen tree.
‘Under’ is similar to ‘below’, but
not exactly the same.
Do you know the difference?
‘Below’ means that you stay underneath
something.
‘Under’ – as a preposition of movement
– means that you pass from one side of something
to another
So, if you’re talking about movement, ‘under’
is more common.
You could say ‘the couple walked below the
bridge.’
It’s grammatically correct, but it’s also
strange.
Do you know why?
‘The couple walked below the bridge’ means
they stayed in the area underneath the bridge,
so the bridge was over their heads the whole
time when they were walking.
‘Over’ is the direct opposite of ‘under’.
The plane flew right over our heads.
She vaulted over the bar.
The direct opposite of ‘below’ is ‘above’.
The difference between ‘over’ and ‘above’
is the same as the difference between ‘under’
and ‘below’.
‘Across’ means from one side of something
to the other.
When the light turned green, they walked across
the street.
We walked across a narrow wooden bridge.
When you use ‘across’, there normally
isn’t anything above you.
Use it for open spaces.
For closed spaces, do you know which preposition
to use?
He walked through the door.
We drove through the tunnel.
The boat travelled through the swamp.
Sometimes, both ‘through’ and ‘across’
are possible; you can say ‘The boat travelled
through the swamp’ or ‘…across the swamp.’
The meaning is similar, but there could be
a small difference.
Do you know?
‘Through’ means that you enter and then
exit something.
If you drive through a tunnel, you first
drive into the tunnel, and then you drive
out of it.
If the boat travels through the swamp, it
moves into the swamp, then later moves out
of it.
‘Across’ means that you start on one side,
and finish on the opposite side.
If you say ‘the boat travelled across the
swamp’, you mean that it entered the swamp
on one side, and exited on the other side.
You can use both ‘across’ and ‘through’
with large, open spaces, especially natural
spaces: fields, parks, gardens, cities, and
so on.
When you can use both, ‘across’ has a
more specific meaning than ‘through’.
Both mean that you entered a space and then
exited it, but ‘across’ also tells you
where you exited.
‘Towards’ means that you approach something;
you get closer to something.
He walked towards the plane.
She’s walking towards the sea.
They’re walking towards the lighthouse.
The opposite of ‘towards’ is ‘away from’.
Here’s a question: what’s the difference
between these two?
Both mean that they approached the lighthouse,
but they’re slightly different.
‘Towards’ tells you a direction.
‘Up to’ tells you a final result.
If they walked towards the lighthouse, they
got closer to it.
You don’t know where they started or finished,
but you know that they got closer to the lighthouse.
If they walked up to the lighthouse, then
they reached the lighthouse; they ended up
next to the lighthouse.
In this case, you don’t know where they
started, but do you know where they finished.
‘Into’ has two common meanings as a preposition
of movement.
First, it can mean to enter.
He dived into the water.
She came into the office.
‘Into’ can also mean to collide with something.
The cars crashed into each other.
The opposite of ‘into’ – meaning ‘enter’–
is ‘out of’.
She took the instruments out of the cupboard.
He got out of his car to fill it up with petrol.
I was walking past the café when I saw my
friend sitting inside.
The two women walked past the parking garage.
If you walk past something – for example
a house – you start with the house in front
of you, you walk past the house, and then
the house is behind you.
‘Up’ and ‘down’ have two common meanings
as prepositions of movement.
First, you have the basic meaning: to a higher
or lower
position.
She’s walking up the hill.
When we let go of the lanterns, they flew
up into the sky.
He walked down the stairs while talking on
the phone.
The roller coaster accelerated down a steep
drop.
You saw earlier that ‘up’ or ‘down’
can also have the same meaning as ‘along’.
That’s all for this lesson.
Thanks for watching!