ENG • SHS 1Term 2WAEC / WASSCE SyllabusVIP Lesson
Prepositions: Time, Place, Movement and Fixed Prepositions
The in/on/at system for time and place, prepositions of movement, agent vs instrument (by/with), since/for, between/among, and the fixed-preposition lists WAEC tests repeatedly.
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Real-World Context & Relevance in Ghana
A wayfinding exchange in Accra: "Turn left at the junction, go along Spintex Road, past the Kanon bus stop, and meet me in the forecourt of the filling station — I'll be the one leaning on the fence." The whole navigation runs on prepositions of place and movement.
Key Syllabus Learning Objectives
- 1Apply the at/on/in system for time expressions from clock-hours to centuries
- 2Apply the at/on/in system for place including streets, cities and surfaces
- 3Choose correct movement prepositions (into/onto/towards/through/across)
- 4Recite the fixed prepositions of high-frequency verbs and adjectives
- 5Distinguish since/for, between/among, below/under, above/on
1
Prepositions of Time: The At–On–In Funnel
Think of a funnel narrowing from long to short. IN takes long containers: centuries, years, seasons, months, parts of the day (in 1957, in the dry season, in October, in the morning — but AT night). ON takes days and dated events (on Friday, on Independence Day, on the 30th of June, on Christmas Eve — but AT Christmas = the festival period). AT takes the pin-point: at 8 o'clock, at midday, at midnight, at sunset, at the moment, at present. Exception cluster: no preposition before this/that/next/last/every + time (see you next Friday, not *on next Friday) and no "in" before "morning of 6th October" — when a date is specified, ON wins: "on the morning of 6th October".
- in ten minutes = after ten minutes from now (future); after is also acceptable.
- during + noun (during the holiday); for + duration (for three weeks); by + deadline (by Friday = not later than).
- since + starting point (since Monday) vs for + stretch (for six days) — a standing WAEC cloze pair.
- "at the weekend" (BrE, WAEC standard) vs "on weekends" (general habit).
Practical Example:
A church programme: "Rehearsals in October, on Sundays, at 5 p.m.; the concert on the evening of 24th October" — all three funnel levels in one poster.
Core Takeaway:
Short clock-time = at; day/date = on; month/year/season/century = in.
2
Prepositions of Place and the Vehicle Rule
AT = a point or address without inside emphasis (at the crossroads, at the bus stop, at 14 Ring Road); also events and institutions as points (at school, at church, at a durbar). ON = contact with a surface (on the desk, on the wall, on the second floor, on the coast road) and lines/borders (on the Volta River, on the Ghana-Togo border). IN = enclosed space (in the classroom, in the cup, in Accra, in Greater Accra Region, in West Africa). Vehicles you can stand and walk in take ON: on a tro-tro, on a bus, on a train, on a ship, on a plane — but IN a car, in a taxi (you crouch inside). Streets: on/in BrE variance, WAEC accepts "on Ring Road" and "in 14 Ring Road" for the number.
- Arrive AT a small place (at the station), arrive IN a city/country (in Tamale), arrive ON an island (on Bioko) — never *arrive to.
- Reach and enter take NO preposition: "He reached home", not *reached to home.
- under vs below: under = directly beneath with contact logic (under the table); below = lower level (below sea level).
- over vs above: above = higher than; over = across/above with coverage or movement (the bridge over the river).
Practical Example:
A ferry announcement at the Akosombo landing: "Passengers on the boat, meet below the upper deck, at the gangway, in Ten minutes." — three registers of place in one sentence.
Core Takeaway:
Point = at, surface = on, container = in; walkable vehicle = on, crouch vehicle = in.
3
Movement and Direction
TO marks destination (walk to school); INTO marks entry crossing the boundary (walk into the hall — Ghanaian English often drops it wrongly: *come inside the room without "into"); ONTO for surfaces; TOWARDS = in the direction of without arrival; THROUGH = entering and exiting the other side (through the traffic); ACROSS = crossing a surface (across the courtyard); ALONG = beside/parallel to a line (along the beach); PAST = beyond (past the pharmacy); ROUND/AROUND (round the roundabout); UP/DOWN; FROM...TO the start-end frame (from Kumasi to Accra); TOWARD(S), ONTO, ONTO vs ON.
- Return and enter carry the destination inside the verb — no "to/into" after return (*return back to home is doubly wrong; back is also redundant).
- "reach to" is a popular Ghanaian error: reach is transitive — "We reached Sunyani at noon."
- fall DOWN / climb UP reinforce direction; "The plane flew over the Afadzato mountains" (over = above and across).
- throw AT (aimed) vs throw TO (handed): WAEC tests the contrast in cloze.
Practical Example:
A road sign near the Wli falls: "Turn left towards Gbodome, follow the path through the forest, and walk across the suspension bridge." — three movement prepositions in one instruction.
Core Takeaway:
Destination = to; boundary-crossing = into; across-surface = across; line-parallel = along.
4
Fixed Prepositions and Agent/Instrument
Certain verbs, adjectives and nouns simply own a preposition, and WAEC recycles the same list: listen TO, laugh AT, depend ON/UPON, insist ON, persist IN, succeed IN, apologize FOR, pay FOR, thank FOR, accuse OF, blame FOR, confide IN, agree WITH a person, agree ON a plan, differ FROM, compare WITH (similarity) / compare TO (likeness: "Shall I compare thee TO a summer's day"), married TO (never with), senior/junior/superior/inferior TO, fond OF, accustomed TO, afraid OF, die OF a disease, die FROM wounds/exhaustion, die IN battle, die FOR one's country. Agent vs instrument: passive sentences name doer with BY and tool with WITH: "The note was written BY Ama WITH a pen."
- Age expressions use IN: "a boy OF twelve" vs the possessive "at the age OF".
- "discuss about" and "explain about" are always wrong — discuss and explain take a direct object.
- preposition before relative clauses: "the man FROM whom I borrowed" / "the man (who/that) I borrowed FROM" — both legal, the stranded preposition is preferred in ordinary style.
- compound prepositions: because OF, owing TO, in spite OF, according TO, instead OF — WAEC objective favourites.
Practical Example:
A police report from a Kumasi station: "The suspect was charged WITH theft; the officer insisted ON a written statement despite threats FROM the accomplices."
Core Takeaway:
Learn verb + preposition as one vocabulary item; never translate it from the local language.
WAEC / WASSCE Examiner Tips
- In cloze passages with an empty preposition, first classify the next word: a time word? place word? verb complement? The three systems in this topic cover nearly every item.
- Memorise the "adjectives ending in -IOR take TO" rule: senior, junior, prior, superior, inferior TO — WAEC asks this at least once every series.
- Error correction with "arrive to/in at": city/country → in, small place → at, island → on; anything else at the verb is the error to delete.
- For "by/with" items, ask: is it the DOER (by) or the TOOL (with)? "The road was built WITH labourers" fails — WITH demands an instrument.
- Do not overthink British vs American variants in objectives: choose the option that matches WAEC-accepted BrE (at the weekend, different FROM), not "on the weekend".
Common Candidate Pitfalls & Errors to Avoid
- "discuss about the issue", "return back to school", "reached to the station" — redundant prepositions or adverbs carried over from local-language patterns.
- Using "married with" instead of "married to".
- Using "since" for a duration ("since six years") or "for" for a starting point ("for 2019").
- "on the car" for a private car (should be "in the car") and "in the tro-tro" is tolerated for being inside, but WAEC expects "on" for public walkable transport.
- Confusing "between the three ministers" (correct: among) and "among the two schools" (correct: between).
- Using "at" before large areas: "live at Accra" instead of "live in Accra".
Topic Mastery Checklist
- Can I place at/on/in correctly for hours, days, months and parts of the day?
- Can I explain why "on a bus" but "in a taxi"?
- Can I choose between since and for without pausing?
- Can I list fifteen fixed-preposition pairs (verb/adjective + preposition) from memory?
- Can I tell between from among, below from under, over from above in a given sentence?
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