Image by Grammar.net.

Learning to use prepositions correctly in a new language is not easy! Anyone who says differently is wrong, at least if you ask me. Part of what makes prepositions so tricky is that by themselves prepositions are rather meaningless and almost impossible to define. Prepositions only get their meaning by describing the relationship between other words in a sentence.  This means their meaning can change at times and a lot of their meaning is depending on the circumstances they are used in.

There are some particularly tricky prepositions in English for sure, but this inofgraphic from Grammar.net does a great job of pictorially illustrating and explaining how to use some of these really difficult ones. For example, the difference between ‘in to’ and ‘into’ is really hard to grasp, even for native English speakers.  This infographic does a nice job of highlighting the differences between these two similar prepositions and also giving some hints on how to check to make sure you are using the right one (into vs. in to) in the right context. This infographic also looks at three phrasal verbs that contain prepositions. Knowing the meaning of phrasal verbs, and how the meaning changes, depending on which preposition is used, can be particularly confusing. Again this infographic does an ice job of helping to sort this out.

Here are some more tricky English prepositions that are found in phrasal verbs that you may also want to take note of:

‘provide to’ vs. ‘provide with’
provide to = emphasizes the people receiving something that is provided
provide with = emphasizes what is being provided

Examples:
Donations were provided to the disaster victims.
The victims will be provided with clothing, blankets, and food.

‘apply for’ vs. ‘apply to’
apply for = people apply for a thing (i.e. a job, a positions, a loan, etc.)
apply to = people apply to a place (the bank) or person (the banker)

Example:
Ruth applied to the bank for a loan.
Ruth applied for a car loan.

‘ask for’ vs. ‘ask to’
ask for & ask to = to try to obtain something by requesting or asking

Examples:

ask + somebody + for + something
I asked him for help.

ask + to + infinitive + somebody
I asked to help him, he said he was fine without help.