10 Prepositional Phrases you should know | English Vocabulary & Conversation

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Hey everyone, I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on 10 useful prepositional phrases.

So in this video, I'm going to give you 10 phrases that begin with prepositions and are

followed by a variety of words and they are all practical, useful, I'm sorry, I'm still

a little embarrassed that you caught me doing what I was doing.

I'll tell you what I was doing in a moment.

So the first prepositional phrase that I have for you is at the same time, which means simultaneously.

Let's look at the example sentence.

It's impossible to be in two places at the same time.

So at the start of the video, I was trying to rub my head and pat my stomach at the same

Can you do that at the same time?

If you're in a public place, I highly recommend trying it right now.

If you're in a private place, even better.

So can you pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time, simultaneously?

Let me know in the comments.

Next up, we have by accident.

So if you do something by accident, you do not do it intentionally, you do it accidentally.

So I think you messaged me by accident.

So you received a weird message from someone and you think, no, I think that was for your

girlfriend or for your boyfriend.

Ah, I have a story about this.

Listen well, children.

I had a coworker named Jonathan.

And hi, Jonathan, if you're watching this.

And Jonathan, Jonathan had a girlfriend named Alex as well.

My name is Alex.

His girlfriend's name is Alex.

He had my name in his phone.

Obviously, Alex and Alex were very close.

So one day I received a message from Jonathan and Jonathan's message said, hey, I'm going

to be home in 30 minutes.

Do you want a pizza?

And I said, yeah, pizza would be great, Jonathan, but I think you have the wrong Alex.

So yes, Jonathan sent me a message by accident, accidentally messaged me instead of messaging

his girlfriend.

Has that ever happened to you?

I hope not, but it can happen.

So this is a very useful phrase when you're having a conversation.

You can use by the way when you want to introduce something into the conversation that you just

thought of in the moment and you want to share this information before it escapes your mind.

It can be related to the thing you are talking about with your friend or it can be completely

So for example, it was nice to see you.

By the way, did you work things out with your sister?

By the way, work things out.

If you work things out with someone, you resolve your issues with them.

You fix a problem that you had with them, like a conflict of some kind.

So yeah, it was nice to see you.

Oh wait, by the way, did you work things out with your sister?

Last time I talked to you, you told me you guys were in conflict with each other.

Okay, next we have "for good".

So if you do something for good or if something finishes for good, it means it is permanent.

So you do something permanently forever.

Here, "Gary quit yesterday."

"Gary quit yesterday?"

He's gone for good.

This means he is gone permanently, gone forever.

No more Gary at this company.

He is gone for good.

If you end a relationship with someone, you know, you can say, "Sorry, we are finished

Permanently forever, okay?

Next we have "for now".

So if something is for now, it is temporary.

So the doctor will see you soon.

For now, please wait here.

Please have a seat in the waiting room.

So "have a seat" is a useful phrase if you want to invite someone to sit down.

If someone comes to your house, you can say, "Oh, please have a seat."

You can also use the phrase "take a seat".

So yes, for now, let's review these before we go to the next ten.

So repeat after me, "at the same time", "by accident", "by the way", "at the

moment", "for good", "for now", excellent, okay.

I think I saw the other five phrases in the other room.

There are so many rooms here, guys.

So I'm going to go there.

Okay, five more to go.

First up, we have "for sure".

So if something is for sure, it is definite.

It is like saying absolutely.

So you can say something is for sure if you are making a prediction.

You can also say "for sure" to say that you will definitely do something or, you

know, you want to say yes emphatically.

So yeah, I'll be there for sure.

So can you come to my birthday?

Yeah, I'll be there for sure means I will absolutely be there.

Next, "in regard to".

So this is very common in emails at work.

It's also common in formal phone calls or standard English phone calls.

If you are calling a company or a government organization or something like that, maybe

the school is calling you because they have some information about your son.

Your son got sick at school.

So the school might call you and say, "yes, hello, yes, I'm calling in regard to your

So I'm calling like with attention to on the subject of your son, on the topic of your

So this is very common in email writing and in phone calls, but it can also be in conversation.

So for example, if you're sending an email, you can say, "oh, in regard to your request,

I am happy to say yes, we can help you".

And for more information in regard to, you can check out my video on email writing, how

to write a professional email.

Next, "in the meantime".

So "in the meantime" is a synonym for "for now".

Both of these phrases refer to the space, the time between two events.

So for example, we have to wait for two more hours.

What can we do in the meantime?

What can we do in the space between now and the event we are waiting for?

So maybe you're waiting outside for a concert or a show of some kind, at the theater perhaps.

So what can we do in the meantime?

Oh, in the meantime, let's go to the coffee shop or let's go to the library, for example.

Next, we have "on purpose".

This is the opposite of "by accident".

If you do something on purpose, you do it intentionally.

You mean to do it.

For example, "oops, sorry, I didn't do that on purpose".

Here we have a negative sentence, right?

"Sorry, I didn't do it on purpose.

I swear, it was an accident.

I did it by accident".

All right, so "on purpose", "by accident", these are opposites.

Finally, "on time".

She's never on time for anything.

So if you have a friend or a family member who is always late for family events, for work, for anything,

then you can say they are never on time.

So "on time" means you arrive on schedule, at the agreed upon time, at the appointed time of something.

So if work starts at nine o'clock and that person is there at nine o'clock, they arrive on time.

If they don't arrive at nine or a little before nine, then they are late.

They are not on time.

Okay, so "repeat after me".

We're going to repeat these five phrases too.

"For sure", "in regard to", "in the meantime", "on purpose", "on time".

If you want to test your understanding of all of these phrases,

as always, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

There, you can see if you remember which prepositions go with which word.

And if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure to like the video, share it, subscribe to my channel,

tell all your friends, leave a comment, let me know down below what you thought of the content here.

And until next time, I wish you success in all of your studies and I'll see you in the next video.

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