10 Prepositional Phrases you should know | English Vocabulary & Conversation

*Prepositional phrases* are an essential part of English speaking. In this advanced English vocabulary and speaking lesson, you’ll learn ten common phrases that begin with a preposition, including: “at the same time“, “by accident“, “by the way“, “for good“, “for now“, “for sure“, “in regard to“, “in the meantime“, “on purpose“, and “on time“. Even if you know the meanings of these phrases, it is important to take the next step and put them into practical conversational contexts. In addition to learning the meanings and uses of these phrases, make sure you listen to and repeat the sentences in the lesson. This is one of the best ways to help you learn new phrases and expressions. Do not be content just knowing the theory and the individual vocabulary units of a language: PRACTICE USING THEM IN CONTEXT. After you watch and practice with the video, make sure to do the quiz on to solidify your understanding. Get more English resources on my website: More of my lessons about prepositions: Prepositions in English: Learn 20 Verbs with Their Prepositions The 10 Most Frequent Preposition Mistakes In this lesson: 0:00 10 Prepositional Phrases 0:37 at the same time 1:19 by accident 2:40 by the way 3:45 for good 4:30 for now 5:39 for sure 6:20 in regard to 7:26 in the meantime 8:11 on purpose 8:47 on time TRANSCRIPT Hey everyone, I’m Alex. Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on 10 useful prepositional phrases. So in this video, I’m going to give you 10 phrases that begin with prepositions and are followed by a variety of words and they are all practical, useful, I’m sorry, I’m still a little embarrassed that you caught me doing what I was doing. I’ll tell you what I was doing in a moment. So the first prepositional phrase that I have for you is at the same time, which means simultaneously. Let’s look at the example sentence. It’s impossible to be in two places at the same time. So at the start of the video, I was trying to rub my head and pat my stomach at the same time. Can you do that at the same time? If you’re in a public place, I highly recommend trying it right now. If you’re in a private place, even better. So can you pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time, simultaneously? Let me know in the comments. Next up, we have by accident. So if you do something by accident, you do not do it intentionally, you do it accidentally. So I think you messaged me by accident. So you received a weird message from someone and you think, no, I think that was for your girlfriend or for your boyfriend. Ah, I have a story about this. Listen well, children. I had a coworker named Jonathan. And hi, Jonathan, if you’re watching this. And Jonathan, Jonathan had a girlfriend named Alex as well. My name is Alex. His girlfriend’s name is Alex. He had my name in his phone. Obviously, Alex and Alex were very close. So one day I received a message from Jonathan and Jonathan’s message said, hey, I’m going to be home in 30 minutes. Do you want a pizza? And I said, yeah, pizza would be great, Jonathan, but I think you have the wrong Alex. So yes, Jonathan sent me a message by accident, accidentally messaged me instead of messaging his girlfriend. Has that ever happened to you? I hope not, but it can happen. By the way. So this is a very useful phrase when you’re having a conversation. You can use by the way when you want to introduce something into the conversation that you just thought of in the moment and you want to share this information before it escapes your mind. It can be related to the thing you are talking about with your friend or it can be completely unrelated. So for example, it was nice to see you. By the way, did you work things out with your sister? By the way, work things out. If you work things out with someone, you resolve your issues with them. You fix a problem that you had with them, like a conflict of some kind. So yeah, it was nice to see you. Bye. Oh wait, by the way, did you work things out with your sister? Last time I talked to you, you told me you guys were in conflict with each other. Okay, next we have “for good“. So if you do something for good or if something finishes for good, it means it is permanent. So you do something permanently forever. Here, “Gary quit yesterday.“ What a shock. “Gary quit yesterday?“ No, not Gary. He’s gone for good. This means he is gone permanently, gone forever. Bye bye Gary. No more Gary at this company. He is gone for good. If you end a relationship with someone, you know, you can say, “Sorry, we are finished for good.“ Permanently forever, okay? Next we have “for now“. So if something is for now, it is temporary. So the doctor will see you soon. For now, please wait here. Please have a seat in the waiting room. […]