Free lesson Level A1 · Lesson · Unit: Home, Sweet Home

In, on, under: prepositions of place

Prepositions of place

We use prepositions of place to say where a thing is. In this lesson, you learn in, on, under, next to, behind, in front of, and between. You also learn to ask Where is ...? and Where are ...?

Preposition	Meaning	Example place
in	inside something	in the box
on	touching the top of something	on the table
under	below something	under the chair
next to	at the side of something	next to the sofa
behind	at the back of something	behind the door
in front of	before something	in front of the TV
between	in the middle of two things	between the beds

In means inside. On means on the top surface. Under means below.

The cat is under the table.

The books are on the desk.

Next to means at the side of something. Behind means at the back. In front of means before something, on the opposite side from behind.

The lamp is next to the bed.

The shoes are behind the door.

Between is for a thing in the middle of two people or things. We often use it with two items: between the chair and the table.

The plant is between the sofa and the window.

Question	Answer pattern	Example
Where is the lamp?	It is + place phrase.	It is on the desk.
Where are the keys?	They are + place phrase.	They are in the bag.

Use Where is ...? for one thing and Where are ...? for more than one thing. In answers, use It is ... for one thing and They are ... for more than one thing.

Words in this lesson

Word	Meaning	Example
in	in	The keys are in the bag.
on	on	The phone is on the table.
under	under	The cat is under the chair.
next to	next to	The lamp is next to the bed.
behind	behind	The shoes are behind the door.
in front of	in front of	The sofa is in front of the TV.
between	between	The table is between the chairs.
Where is ...?	Where is ...?	Where is the remote?
Where are ...?	Where are ...?	Where are my books?
place phrase	place phrase	On the desk is a place phrase.

Exercises

This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:

multiple choice: 3
match the pairs: 1
fill the gap: 3
build the sentence: 2
translate the sentence: 1

Try the first one

Choose the correct word: The cat is ___ the box. It is inside.

in
on
under

The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.

All lessons of this course