An aerial view of Empire Bluff, Traverse City, Michigan overlooking Lake Michigan and the peninsula

Activities: “How to use prepositions of movement in English?”

By: Erin Kuester
Associated Articles

These activities are part of our English Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

Activity 1: Fill in the blanks

Let’s look at each of the sentences below. They are all missing the correct preposition of movement. Which preposition do you think fits best in the sentence?

Use each preposition only once:

to
toward
from
up
down
across
into
onto
along
around
over
under
through

  1. We went for a walk the block after dinner, to look at the sunset.

  2. The kids climbed the tree because it was time for dinner.

  3. My parents had to drive a thunderstorm to get to my house!

  4. I can’t believe you walked here all the way your house! Don’t you live on the opposite side of town?

  5. The workmen climbed the ladder to fix the roof.

  6. The football team ran the field while the marching band played the fight song.

  7. The dog was so excited to see his owner that he jumped the fence!

  8. Do you want to drive the restaurant together?

  9. My brother likes to ride his bike the river.

  10. As soon as you open that box, the cat will jump it.

  11. “Micah, move a little Alex. You’re not in the picture right now. Great! Now, everyone, say ‘cheese’!”

  12. Did you know there’s a tunnel that lets you drive the English Channel?

  13. Sometimes you have to pay a fee to drive a bridge.

Activity 2: Describe the picture

Check out each of the pictures below. All the pictures include some kind of movement. Can you write a sentence for each picture using a prepositional phrase of movement to show what the people are doing? For example:

ex: He is running toward the mountains.

A photograph of a road stretching out in front of the camera. At the end of the road we can see a snowy mountain range. A little ways away, we can see a man running away from us, in the middle of the road.

  • Three young men of different races are playing basketball in front of a concrete wall painted with a colorful design. The photo has caught them all jumping into the air. One young man is going to shoot a basket (or perhaps dunk the ball) while the other two are reaching out to try to interfere with the shot.

  • A man with shoulder-length curly hair, a blue dress shirt, gray t-shirt, tan chinos, boat shoes, and a red baseball cap is crossing the street at a zebra crosswalk. He is currently in the middle of the road. Behind him we can see that the street is lined with palm trees and looks to be an older downtown from a Western city, perhaps in California or the Southwest.

  • A photo of a man diving into a swimming pool, through an inner tube floating on the water. The pool appears to be in a backyard, as it's surrounded by privacy fencing, and it is surrounded by a narrow garden.

  • A dramatic photo of a soccer player, taken from behind. The ball is in midair and he right leg is preparing to kick it in the direction of a goal.

  • Two well-dressed men walk on a modern sidewalk. One is pushing a baby carriage. Over their heads is an arching reflective covering that leaves them in the shade. To their left is a river. Ahead of them (a little blurry), we can see an old industrial bridge and other people on the river walk.

  • A photo taken from the front seat of a car out the front window. We can see a two-lane road in front of us passing between some pine trees. On the left side we can also see a rock wall going upwards.

  • A photo of a woman walking on the beach. She is walking close to the water, away from the camera and ahead of her are some cliffs. Behind her, she is leaving footprints.

  • A tower of children's blocks. The blocks already on the tower come up past the waist of a child in a blue shirt who is mostly out of frame. The child's hands reach out and place a forth block at the top of the tower.

  • A photo of a woman with long orange hair walking up some stairs. The photo is take from the side, so we can see the side of the stairs and the wall behind them. Both are lime washed white, there is no railing, and the treads on the stairs are made of wood.

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