Prepositions of movement: up, down, onto, off, into, out

Preposition opposites.

To study prepositions of movement, it is useful to look at opposites:

 

up                               down   (from)

on(to)*                   off  

in(to)*                    out (of)  

 

As prepositions of movement, we can say with no difference in meaning:

go on the slide OR go onto the slide,

go in the Wendy house* OR go into the Wendy house.

*Wendy house = a little toy house for children in a park.

We use only in and on when they are prepositions of place...

slide            Wendy house

 

Examples of use of opposites.

If a thing or a person gets/goes/comes up, it/ he must then get/come/go down.

If a thing or person gets/goes/comes in(to) a place, it/he must then get/come/go out of that place.

If a thing or person gets/goes/comes on(to) a place, it/he must then get/come/go off that place.

 

Example sentences:

A child goes up the slide.
The father calls to her, "come down from there".

The child goes on(to) the roundabout.
The father calls to her, "come off there".

The child goes in(to) the Wendy house.
The father calls to her, "come out of there".

roundabout

 

Useful verbs for prepositions of movement: come and go.

When a thing or person moves away from the speaker/observer, he/she says go.

When a thing or person moves towards the speaker/observer, he/she says come.

move away =                move towards =       

 

For example, a parent watching his child in the park:

The child goes up the slide and then comes down from the slide.

The child goes on(to) the roundabout and then comes off the roundabout.

The child goes in(to) the Wendy house and then comes out of the Wendy house.

 

Use of get with prepositions of movement.

When there is some difficulty to move from one place to the other, we often use get. For example:

If the slide is high and difficult to climb, we may say get up the slide and not go up the slide.*

If the roundabout is moving fast, we may say get on(to) the roundabout and not go on(to) the roundabout.*

If the door of the Wendy house is very small, we may say get in(to) the Wendy house and not go in(to) the Wendy house.*

If we slide down the slide then we say go down the slide. There is no difficulty in sliding!

*Remember that go + preposition of place and not get is also used to mean to play on/in etc. So we say I'm going on the slide when we mean I'm going to play on the slide. In this context of play on we cannot say I'm getting on(to) the slide.

 

Examples of differences between go/come and get.

I went in(to) my house (= I walked through the open door).

The thief got in(to) my house late last night (= the thief forced the door open).

I went up the road to the shops (= I walked along the road).

The cat got up the tree and then couldn't get down. (= climbed the tree with difficulty).

Let's go on(to) the beach and sunbathe (= walk on(to) the beach).

I had to get on(to) the roof to repair the aerial (= climb on(to) the roof).

 

Adverbs talking about clothes: off and on.

We use on to say we are dressing and off to say the opposite; that we are removing clothes:

Put your socks on now, please.

You must take your shoes off when you come in.

What shirt shall I put on?

Take off that jacket. It needs washing.

 

Use of more than one preposition, adverb.

Native speakers of English often use more than one of these preposition/adverbs at a time. If something or someone is up the slide and on the slide, it is possible to say get down off the slide. Here are some more examples:

Climb up on(to) my shoulders (parent to child on the ground).

Get down on(to) the sand (parent to child on a his shoulders at the beach).

He fell down off the slide (from the slide to the ground).

The cat got up in(to) the tree (from the ground to the branches of the tree).

Go out in(to) the garden and play (parent to a child who is in the house).

Come on! Get up off the ground (parent to child lying on the ground).

Take it out on(to) the grass (parent to a child in the house about the dog).

Get away from there! (parent to a child looking at a snake in the grass).

Come out from (in*) there (to a child hiding in a cupboard).

Get down from (up*) there (to a child who has climbed onto a wall).

*These word are common in colloquial speech but may sound redundant and can be omitted - this is especially the case after "from". So we can also say "come out from there".

 

Exercises: prepositions of movement...

Also see: prepositions of place - in, on...

 

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