संबंधसूचक (Preposition)

हिंदी में पढ़ें

Preposition — The Small Words That Carry Big Marks

🎯 Why This Chapter Matters

In almost every government exam — SSC GD, SSC MTS, RRB Group D, Police Constable — prepositions appear regularly in error-spotting, fill-in-the-blank and sentence-improvement questions. They look tiny ("in", "on", "at"), but examiners know that Hindi-speaking students make the maximum mistakes exactly here. Why? Because Hindi postpositions (में, पर, से, को) do not map one-to-one onto English prepositions. Master this chapter and you convert your weakest area into guaranteed marks.

📌 Learning Objectives

After this chapter you will be able to:

1. Define a preposition and identify it in any sentence.
2. Use prepositions of time, place, and direction correctly.
3. Apply the 12 Golden Rules that examiners test again and again.
4. Spot the classic traps: *in/on/at* confusion, wrong fixed phrases (*married with* ❌), and unnecessary prepositions (*discuss about* ❌).
5. Answer fact-based preposition questions in under 15 seconds.

1. What Is a Preposition?

A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to show its relation with another word in the sentence.

• The book is on the table. (relation between *book* and *table*)
• She came after lunch. (relation between *came* and *lunch*)

The noun/pronoun after the preposition is called its object. Together they form a prepositional phrase: *on the table*, *after lunch*, *in the morning*.

> 💡 Memory hook: Think of a preposition as a word that can fit in the blank — "The mouse ran ___ the box." (*in, on, under, over, behind, near…*) Any word that fits there is likely a preposition.

🧠 Active Recall

1. What is the object of the preposition in "She sat beside me"?
2. Fill in the blank with any three prepositions: "The cat jumped ___ the wall."

2. Prepositions of Time: IN / ON / AT

This is the most tested area. Learn it as a pyramid — from big time to exact time:

Mnemonic 🧠 — "A Point ON a day IN a period":
AT = a point (smallest), ON = a day (middle), IN = a long period (biggest). Small → Medium → Large: A–O–I.

⚠️ No preposition before *today, tomorrow, yesterday, last night, this morning, next week*:

• ❌ I will go on tomorrow. → ✅ I will go tomorrow.
• ❌ He came in last night. → ✅ He came last night.

🧠 Active Recall

1. ___ 26th January 2. ___ the afternoon 3. ___ 6 p.m. 4. ___ last Monday (trick question!)

3. Prepositions of Place: IN / ON / AT

More place prepositions you must know:

• above / over (higher than), below / under (lower than)
• between (two) vs among (more than two)
• beside (next to) vs besides (in addition to) — a favourite trap!
• behind, in front of, near, opposite, across

🧠 Active Recall

1. Choose: The picture hangs ___ the wall. (in/on)
2. Choose: The secret is ___ you and me. (between/among)

4. Prepositions of Direction & Movement

• to → destination: go to school
• into → movement inside: jumped into the well (vs in = already inside)
• onto → movement to a surface: climbed onto the roof
• from → starting point: came from Agra
• towards, through, across, along, up, down

⚠️ Trap: arrive/reach/enter —

• arrive at a station, arrive in a city/country ✅
• reach Delhi (no preposition!) ❌ reached *to* Delhi
• enter the room (no preposition!) ❌ entered *into* the room

5. Fixed (Dependent) Prepositions — The Examiner's Goldmine

Certain verbs, adjectives and nouns take a fixed preposition. These must be memorised:

🧠 Active Recall

1. He is married ___ Sita. 2. She is good ___ singing. 3. We are waiting ___ the train.

6. Verbs That Take NO Preposition (Very High-Yield!)

Hindi influence makes students add extra prepositions. These verbs are complete in themselves:

⚠️ Examiner's Trap Box

Trap 1 — "Sound-Right" Hindi translation: *"He is angry on me"* sounds fine in Hindi (वह मुझ पर नाराज़ है) but English needs angry with me. Never translate prepositions word-for-word from Hindi.

Trap 2 — in/into confusion: "The frog jumped in the well" ❌ — movement needs into. "The frog is in the well" ✅ (position, no movement).

Trap 3 — Double preposition: "Where are you going to?" is acceptable in speech, but in error-spotting questions watch for *discuss about, return back, repeat again* — the extra word is the error.

🔁 Linguistic Bridge — Hindi vs English

Rule of thumb: If you translated the preposition directly from Hindi, double-check it — that is exactly where the examiner hides the error.

🏆 The 12 Golden Rules of Prepositions

1. AT for exact time; ON for days/dates; IN for months/years/seasons.
2. Since + point of time (Monday, 2010); for + period of time (two days, five years).
3. Between two, among more than two.
4. Beside = next to; besides = in addition to.
5. In = position inside; into = movement inside.
6. On = position on surface; onto = movement to surface.
7. Arrive at (small place) / arrive in (city, country); reach takes no preposition.
8. Married to, different from, afraid of, good at, interested in, depend on — fixed pairs.
9. Discuss, order, reach, enter, accompany, resemble, comprise — no preposition after them.
10. No preposition before today, tomorrow, yesterday, last night, next week, this morning.
11. By + agent/vehicle (by bus, by Ram); with + instrument (with a pen, with a knife).
12. A preposition is followed by a noun/pronoun in objective case: *between you and me* (❌ between you and I).

📋 Summary Table

🔁 Review After 2 Days

Close the book and write from memory:

1. The A–O–I time pyramid with two examples each.
2. Five verbs that take no preposition.
3. Five fixed pairs (e.g., married ___ , different ___).
4. The difference between *beside/besides* and *in/into*.

If you can blurt all four correctly, your preposition foundation is exam-ready. If not, re-read Sections 2, 5 and 6 — then test yourself again.