‘As/Like your mother, I'd like to give you a piece of advice.' Can you tell the difference between as your mother and like your mother? Well, as is used to describe a particular job or function; in this case a relationship (= I'm your mother). Like means in the same way as somebody else in our example sentence (= your mother and I want to do the same thing).
‘We arrived at the cinema in time.' ‘The train arrived right on time.' Here we have two similar expressions. When is each one used? If you get/come/arrive somewhere in time, you are not late; you are there earlier than necessary, with enough time before something starts. Let's say that the movie started at six o'clock. Then, we arrived at the cinema perhaps at ten to six. On the other hand, on time means at exactly the correct time. In our example sentence, the train arrived at the station according to the timetable.
‘The wind was so strong that we were afraid of our lives,' wrote a student in her holiday story. Can you see the mistake? When you are afraid of (doing) something, you are frightened because you think that you might suffer or be hurt. Most people are afraid of snakes or going out alone at night, for example. When you are worried that something unpleasant or dangerous might happen to a person, animal or thing, you are afraid for somebody/something. Therefore, the student and her friends were afraid for their lives in a dangerous situation, not afraid of them.
The adjective frightened has a similar meaning to that of afraid, and it collocates with same prepositions: ‘John is frightened of walking home alone in the dark.' ‘Maria is frightened for her daughter, who's in hospital.' In addition, it is followed by the preposition by when used as a past participle in the passive voice: ‘Hannah was frightened by a snake that was slithering across the garden.' (= A snake frightened Hannah.)
‘You don't talk to people; you talk at people,' complained a young woman to her boyfriend in a movie. Can you explain the meaning of the sentence? Here we go. We normally talk to other people, i.e., we communicate with them in order to exchange information, news, ideas, etc. When we talk at another person, we speak to them without listening to what they say in reply. So the point is that the woman criticized her boyfriend for not listening to what other people say when he talks to them.
Similarly, we can use the prepositions to and at after the verb throw. To throw something at somebody implies an attack or aggressive behaviour, whereas to throw something to somebody refers to the act of sending something through the air with no idea of attack. Compare the two sentences: ‘Mark threw a stone at the dog to chase it away.' ‘Peter threw the ball to the dog, but it didn't catch it.'
‘Jack's father was killed by/with a heavy stone.' There is a slight difference in meaning between killed by and killed with. The preposition by introduces the agent in a passive clause; perhaps the stone fell on the man accidentally. We use with to refer to a tool used by somebody to do something, i.e., somebody killed the man deliberately.
We use the preposition in before months, e.g., ‘Lucy was born in September,' as well as with the parts of the day, e.g., ‘I usually have a nap in the afternoon.' We, however, use the preposition on in the structure on + month + part of the day, as in the following sentence: ‘One Saturday, on a September afternoon, I boarded a bus and went on a trip.' We also use on in the structure on + part of the day + of + date: ‘Where were you on the afternoon of September 14?' Similarly, we say at night (= during any night) and in the night (= during one particular night), but we use the preposition on when we are talking about a specific night (or another part of the day): ‘We slept in a luxurious hotel on our wedding night.'
I hope you aren't too confused about prepositional phrases now. Or is it confused by? Whatever, I'm too tired to carry on writing. See you guys later.
