Prepositions3 app for iPhone and iPad

Learn the mental images that native speakers use to select the right preposition. Develop a native-like sense of how to use English prepositions by learning from pictures and sounds instead of explanations!
Please try out of the free version.


The Criteria Approach: Prepositions Vol.3 is a unique and compelling way for learners of English to discover the criteria that native speakers use to select prepositions. Using your own awareness, go through the illustrations and listen to the narration in this application many times and deepen your understanding of English.

Any time we speak or write in any language, we must choose the words we use to express ourselves. Even if we cannot explain exactly why we select the words we do, each of us has criteria for how to choose them. Native speakers of each language share a common set of criteria that allow them to express themselves, and make themselves understood. Of course English has its own, specific criteria, and grasping them is essential to improving your ability to express yourself clearly.

Prepositions are essential for expressing directions and locations in space and time, and thus a key component of learning how to communicate effectively in English. Prepositions also indicate whether a space should be imagined as a point (zero-dimensional), a line (1-dimensional), a plane (2-dimensional), or a 3-dimensional object.

In this Volume 3, we will examine prepositions which spaces are seen zero- dimensionally, i.e. points. These include at, to, from, close to, away from, by, up to, down from. And also we will examine prepositions which spaces are seen three dimensionally (3D). These include beside, behind, after, before, toward(s), for, against, like, beyond, above, below, underneath, and beneath.

Prepositions are presented in three stages:

1. The basic image,
2. Extension of the basic image, and
3. Images in contrast.

First, discover the basic images that are common to each preposition through the situations and conceptual drawings presented in the pictures. Next. apply to these core images to more abstract situations. And finally, find the more subtle distinctions among the images of prepositions by comparing and contrasting similar situations.

The Criteria Approach presents you with a large number of situations for you to express in English, and through the experience of visualizing these situations, you will naturally find the criteria you need to use to select the various prepositions. Please have fun with The Criteria Approach: Prepositions Vol. 3.