New to Prepositions?
Read the guide before practising — it explains the rules and examples.
Dependent Prepositions — Verbs
About Prepositions Exercises
Prepositions are short words — in, on, at, by, for, with, to, from, between, among — but they carry a disproportionate weight in English grammar. They specify relationships of time, place, movement, cause, and manner, and they are part of hundreds of fixed phrases and collocations that cannot be derived from general rules. Preposition errors are among the most persistent for learners of English at every CEFR level, largely because preposition choice in English does not always translate predictably from other languages.
These exercises focus on the three most important preposition categories tested in IELTS, TOEIC, and CEFR exams: prepositions of time (in April, on Monday, at midnight, by noon, during the meeting, for three hours), prepositions of place (in a box, on the table, at the station, between two buildings, in front of the door), and prepositions of movement (to the station, into the room, through the tunnel, across the bridge, along the path). Higher-level exercises introduce fixed prepositional phrases that follow their own rules regardless of the general pattern.
Gap-fill exercises are especially effective for prepositions because they force recall of the exact preposition in context — the same type of productive challenge that arises in writing tasks. Multiple-choice exercises pair commonly confused prepositions (e.g. in time vs on time, listen to vs hear of) to help you develop the discrimination skills needed for reading and listening comprehension. For a systematic explanation of all preposition categories, see the Prepositions theory guides.