Prepositions of place (and all prepositions) can be one of the hardest parts of English to use correctly because the rules are often quite difficult, and like most rules for a language, there are lots of exceptions.

In the previous lesson on prepositions of place, we looked at ‘at’, ‘in’ and ‘on’. In this lesson we will look at the prepositions of place ‘against’, ‘alongside’, ‘beside’, ‘by’ and ‘towards’.

Prepositions of place – examples of use:

AGAINST: having contact with something, touching.

• ‘He put the bike against the wall.’
• ‘The dog leaned against its owner.’

ALONGSIDE: in parallel, like train tracks

• ‘The horses worked alongside each other to pull the cart.’
• ‘It is a beautiful drive as the road runs alongside the coast.‘

BESIDE: at the side of, not necessarily touching.

• ‘He put the book beside his bed.’
• ‘She sat beside an elderly man on the train.’

BY: in the area of

• ‘I live by some shops and a library.’
• ‘If you go that way, you will drive by a park.’

TOWARDS: getting closer, aiming at each other

• ‘The cars drove towards each other and only turned away at the last minute.’
• ‘He waved as he walked towards me.’