FOR

Use 'for' with a period of time to express the duration or 'how long' something has happened:

for three weeks

for many years

WHILE
Use 'while' plus a verb form:

while I was watching TV

while I lived in New York

DURING
Use 'during' with a noun to express 'when' something happens:

during class

during my vacation

during the discussion

The following list contains the key English prepositions for English language learners. There are
more than 150 English prepositions in English. However, this list contains the most commonly used
and serves as an excellent starting English prepositions list for most learners and classes. These
English prepositions are divided into one word, two word prepositions and three word prepositions.
The two word and three word English prepositions are also known as prepositional phrases.

One Word Prepositions

about
above
across
after
against
along
among
around
as
at
before
behind
below

beneath
beside
between
beyond
by
despite
down
during
except
for
from
in
including
inside
into
like
near
next
of
of
on
onto
opposite
out
outside
over
past
through
to
toward
towards
under
until
up
upon
with
without

Multiple Word Prepositions

Two Word Prepositions

according to
ahead of
aside from
because of
close to
due to
except for
far from
inside of
instead of
near to
next to
out from
out of
outside of
regardless of

Three Word Prepositions

as far as
as well as
by means of
in accordance with
in addition to
in case of
in front of
in place of
in spite of
on account of
on behalf of
on top of
with regard to

ABOUT
Use the following adjectives followed by 'about'.
Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

angry / annoyed / furious about something

Example: I'm really angry about our losses on the stock market!
excited about something

Example: He's excited about his birthday party next week.

worried / upset about something

Example: He's worried about his upcoming examinations.

sorry about something

Example: I'm very sorry about losing your book.

AT
Use the following adjectives followed by 'at'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings.
Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.
good / excellent / brilliant at something OR at doing something

Example: They are excellent at planning fun parties.

bad / hopeless at something OR at doing something

Example: Unfortunately, I'm hopeless at being on time.

AT / BY
Use the following adjectives followed by 'at' or 'by'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related
meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.
amazed / astonished / shocked / surprised at OR by something

Example: I was amazed at his stamina.

FOR
Use the following adjectives followed by 'for'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings.
Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.
angry with someone for something

Example: I'm really angry with John for his total lack of responsibility.
famous for something

Example: She's famous for her watercolor paintings.

responsible for something

Example: You'll have to speak to John, he's responsible for customer complaints.
sorry for doing something

Example: He says he's sorry for shouting at you.

(to feel or be) sorry for someone

Example: I really feel sorry for Pam.

FROM
Use the following adjectives followed by 'from'.

diferent from someone / something

Example: His photographs are very different from his paintings.
Test Your Understanding
ichards introduced his list of words in the book How to Read a Page: A Course in Effective
Reading (1942), and he called them "the most important words" for two reasons:

1.

They cover the ideas we can least avoid using, those which are concerned in all that we do as
thinking begins.

2.

They are words we are forced to use in explaining other words because it is in terms of the ideas
they cover that the meanings of other words must be given.
Here, at last, are those 100 important words:
Amount, Argument, Art, Be, Beautiful, Belief, Cause, Certain, Chance, Change, Clear, Common,
Comparison, Condition, Connection, Copy, Decision, Degree, Desire, Development, Diferent, Do,
Education, End, Event, Examples, Existence, Experience, Fact, Fear, Feeling, Fiction, Force, Form, Free,
General, Get, Give, Good, Government, Happy, Have, History, Idea, Important, Interest, Knowledge, Law,
Let, Level, Living, Love, Make, Material, Measure, Mind, Motion, Name, Nation, Natural, Necessary,
Normal, Number, Observation, Opposite, Order, Organization, Part, Place, Pleasure, Possible, Power,
Probable, Property, Purpose, Quality, Question, Reason, Relation, Representative, Respect, Responsible,
Right, Same, Say, Science, See, Seem, Sense, Sign, Simple, Society, Sort, Special, Substance, Thing,
Thought, True, Use, Way, Wise, Word, Work
All these words carry multiple meanings, and they can say quite diferent things to diferent readers. For
that reason, Richards' list could just as well have been labeled "The 100 Most Ambiguous Words":
The very usefulness which gives them their importance explains their ambiguity. They are the servants of
too many interests to keep to single, clearly defined jobs. Technical words in the sciences are like adzes,
planes, gimlets, or razors. A word like "experience," or "feeling," or "true" is like a pocketknife. In good
hands it will do most things--not very well. In general we will find that the more important a word is, and
the more central and necessary its meanings are in our pictures of ourselves and the world, the more
ambiguous and possibly deceiving the word will be.
In an earlier book, The Making of Meaning (1923), Richards (and co-author C. K. Ogden) had explored the
fundamental notion that meaning doesn't reside in words themselves. Rather, meaning is rhetorical: it's
fashioned out of both a verbal context (the words surrounding the words) and the experiences of the
individual reader. No surprise, then, that miscommunication is often the result when the "important words"
come into play.
It's this idea of miscommunicating through language that led Richards to conclude that all of us are
developing our reading skills all the time: "Whenever we use words in forming some judgment or decision,
we are, in what may be a painfully sharp sense, 'learning to read'" (How to Read a Page).
In case anyone's counting, yes, there are actually 103 words on Richards' top-100 list. The bonus words,
he said, are meant "to incite the reader to the task of cutting out those he sees no point in and adding any

he pleases, and to discourage the notion that there is anything sacrosanct about a hundred, or any other
number."
So with those thoughts in mind, it's now time to create a list of what you think are the most important
words.