Prepositions of movement in English

This chapter will discuss the prepositions of movement in English. The preposition of movement is used to show movement of one place to another.

Lesson outline

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1.What are prepositions of movement?
2.An alphabetical list of English prepositions of movement
3.Exercises
3.1.English preposition of movement exercise
3.2.Fill in the preposition of movement in English

What are prepositions of movement?

The English prepositions of movement are used to express a movement, displacement or direction. These prepositions are usually used with verbs such as:

to go
to walk
to run

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An alphabetical list of English prepositions of movement

The table below shows the different prepositions of movement with examples and their usage.

Preposition of movement	Use	Example
Across	Moving from one side to another	She walked across the road. They ran across the field.
Along	Moving continuously beside something	We walked along the beach. They drove along the seaside.
Around	Moving in a circular way	I ran around the playground. He walked around the field.
Away from	Moving from any given place	They walked away from the post office. He ran away from his mother.
Back to	Returning to a location where you have previously been	He went back to the shop. They walked back to the store.
Down	Moving from high to low	They ran down the hill. We walked down the stairs.
Into	Entering a location	She walked into the room. They walked into the restaurant.
Off	Moving from a place or position	He ran off stage. I jumped off a cliff.
Onto	Moving on top of something	She walked onto the stage. He ran onto the boat.
Out of	Leaving one location to another	They walked out of the cinema. I ran out of my room.
Over	Crossing from one end to the other	We ran over the bridge. I walked over the cord.
Past	Moving by something	They walked past our door. I ran past my mother.
Round	Moving around something	You ran round the track. They walked round the park.
Through	Entering something from one side and go out at another	They drove through a tunnel. The fish swam through a tube.
To	Moving from one place to another	You went to the supermarket. They walked to the post office.
Towards	Moving in the direction of something	I ran towards the bus stop. He walked towards the supermarket.
Under	Moving below something	She walks under the bridge. The cat ran under the table.
Up	Moving from low to high	They walked up the stairs. You ran up the hill.