Preposition List of Words: Why You’re Probably Using Them Wrong

Prepositions are weird. You use them every single time you open your mouth, yet if I asked you to define "of" or "with" right now without using the word itself, you’d probably just stare at me. They are the "glue" words of English. Without them, your sentences fall apart into a pile of nouns and verbs that don’t know how to talk to each other. People look for a preposition list of words because they want to write better or pass a test, but honestly, memorizing a list is the slowest way to actually get good at this.

You’ve been told since grade school that a preposition is anything a squirrel can do to a tree. The squirrel goes up the tree, around the tree, through the tree. It’s a decent starting point. But what about words like "concerning," "despite," or "minus"? Squirrels don't "despite" trees.

English has about 150 prepositions. That sounds like a lot, but in reality, about 25 of them do 90% of the heavy lifting. If you master those, you've basically won the game.

The Heavy Hitters You Use Every Day

Most people get tripped up on the basics because they’re so small. Look at "in," "at," and "on." They seem interchangeable until they aren't. You’re in a car but on a bus. Why? Usually, if you can stand up and walk around inside the vehicle, you use "on." If you have to crouch and crawl in, it’s "in."

Then there’s the time factor. You meet someone at 5:00 PM, on Tuesday, in January. See the pattern? It goes from specific to general.

• At: Specific points (at the corner, at noon).
• On: Surfaces and dates (on the table, on Monday).
• In: Enclosed spaces and long periods (in the box, in 2026).

It gets messier. Some prepositions are "compound." These are phrases like "in spite of" or "on account of." They function as a single unit. If you try to break them apart, the sentence loses its mind.

I remember reading a piece by the linguist Steven Pinker where he talks about how our brains process these spatial relationships. We don't just see a "preposition list of words" as a vocabulary task; we see it as a map of the world. When you say "the keys are on the table," your brain is literally calculating the physical support of the table holding the keys.

The One Rule Everyone Breaks (And Why It's Okay)

You’ve heard it. "Never end a sentence with a preposition."

It’s nonsense.

This "rule" was cooked up by 17th-century grammarians like John Dryden who wanted English to behave more like Latin. In Latin, you literally cannot end a sentence with a preposition because of how the language is structured. But English isn't Latin. It’s a Germanic hybrid that loves to dangle its prepositions.

Winston Churchill famously (though perhaps apocryphally) mocked this by saying, "That is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."

If you force a preposition to the middle of a sentence just to satisfy an old rule, you usually end up sounding like a Victorian ghost. "The person I was talking with" sounds human. "The person with whom I was talking" sounds like you’re about to serve me a lawsuit.

The Sneaky List of Words You Didn't Know Were Prepositions

We usually think of short words. Of, to, for, with, on. But the English language is a bit of a hoarder. It steals words from other categories and turns them into prepositions.

Take the word "including." It looks like a verb, right? It ends in -ing. But in the sentence "Everyone, including Mark, went home," it's acting exactly like a preposition. It’s showing the relationship between Mark and the group.

Same goes for:

• Barring: "Barring any rain, the game is on."
• Concerning: "I have questions concerning the budget."
• Given: "Given the circumstances, we did well."

These are "participial prepositions." They are the chameleons of the preposition list of words. They keep things formal and precise, which is why you see them so often in legal documents or boring business emails.

Why Phrasal Verbs Are Your Actual Nightmare

If you’re learning English as a second language, prepositions are the final boss. Not because of the words themselves, but because of phrasal verbs.

A phrasal verb is a verb + a preposition that creates a whole new meaning.

1. Give up: Quit.
2. Give in: Surrender.
3. Give out: To fail or distribute.

The preposition changes everything. You aren't literally "up" when you give up. There is no physical height involved. It’s idiomatic. This is where a standard preposition list of words fails you. You can’t just look up "up" and understand why your car "broke down."

Actually, think about "down" for a second. You can fall down, which is physical. But you can also be down for a party, which means you're interested. Or you can calm down, which is emotional. The preposition is doing all the emotional labor in those sentences.

✨ Don't miss: Mixed Color Box Braids Are The Only Way To Do Protective Styling Right Now

The Most Common Preposition List of Words (The "Workhorses")

I’m not going to give you a boring table. Just look at these. These are the ones that actually matter.

Prepositions of Place: Above, below, behind, beside, between, near, under, over. These are your "squirrel" words. They tell us where things are.

Prepositions of Time: After, before, during, since, until. These tell us when. Simple enough, but "since" and "for" cause endless trouble. You use "since" for a specific point in time ("since 1998") and "for" for a duration ("for ten years").

The Weird Ones: Aboard, amid, as, but (meaning except), despite, per, versus, via. "But" as a preposition is a fun one. "Everyone but me was invited." Here, "but" isn't connecting two ideas; it's excluding someone. It's a preposition in disguise.

Getting Better at Using Them

Honestly, the best way to master a preposition list of words isn't by staring at a list. It’s by listening to the rhythm of the language.

There’s a concept in linguistics called "collocation." It basically means words that naturally hang out together. We say "depend on," not "depend of." We say "interested in," not "interested at." There is no logical reason for this. It’s just how the words bonded over centuries.

If you want to sound natural, stop worrying about the "rules" and start looking for these patterns. Read high-quality journalism—places like The New Yorker or The Atlantic—where the editors are obsessed with these nuances. You’ll start to see that prepositions aren't just filler. They are the steering wheel of the sentence. They tell the reader exactly which direction you’re headed.

Real-World Fixes for Common Mistakes

• Between vs. Among: Use "between" for two distinct things (between a rock and a hard place). Use "among" for a group or indistinct mass (among the crowd). However, if you're talking about three specific people, you can actually use "between." It's a nuance most people miss.
• Like vs. As: "Like" is a preposition; "as" is a conjunction. You look like your father. You do as your father does. If there’s a verb following it, you probably need "as."
• Into vs. In: "In" is a position. "Into" is a movement. You are in the room. You walked into the room.

Actionable Next Steps to Master Prepositions

If you're looking to actually improve your writing using this knowledge, don't just memorize the list. Do this instead:

1. Audit your "of" usage. We often use "of" when we don't need to. "The color of the car" can just be "the car's color." It tightens your prose immediately.
2. Watch for prepositional "smothering." Sometimes we use three prepositions when one would do. "In regards to the matter of" can just be "about."
3. Practice phrasal verbs in context. If you find a new phrasal verb, don't just write down the definition. Write three sentences about your own life using it.
4. Read aloud. Your ear is much better at catching preposition errors than your eyes. If a sentence sounds "clunky," check if you've got a string of three or four prepositions in a row. That’s usually the culprit.
5. Use "toward" instead of "towards" if you're writing for an American audience. "Towards" is more common in British English. It’s a small tweak that shows you know your audience.

Mastering a preposition list of words isn't about being a grammar robot. It’s about making sure your ideas get from your brain to the reader’s brain without getting lost in the "of," "in," and "at" along the way.