Prepositions: MDCAT English notes

Prepositions MDCAT notes: at, on and in for time and place, for vs since, between vs among, fixed prepositions after verbs and adjectives, examples.

Unit: Formal and Lexical Aspect of Language · Updated 25 September 2026

Prepositions of time

Preposition	Used with	Examples
at	Clock times, exact moments	at 3 p.m., at noon, at night, at five o'clock
on	Days and dates	on Monday, on 14 August, on my birthday
in	Months, years, seasons, parts of the day, longer periods	in 2005, in June, in the spring, in the afternoon, in the morning
for	A length of time	for five minutes, for two weeks
since	A starting point (with perfect tenses)	since 2019, since Monday
in	A time after which something happens	He will be with you in a minute.

So: "I woke up at five o'clock in the morning."

in: inside an enclosed space: in the drawer, in the pool, in Lahore.
on: on a surface: on the table, on the wall, on the runway.
at: a point or specific place: at the door, at the bus stop.
to: movement towards a destination: take a bus to the market.
into: movement from outside to inside: He jumped into the pool.
between two; among more than two: distribute the handouts among the candidates.

Many words must be followed by a particular preposition. These are learned as pairs.

Word	Preposition	Word	Preposition
abstain	from	accused	of
abide	by	guilty	of
prefer (X)	to (or over) Y	entitled	to
work	on (a project)	pay	for (a meal)
desirous	of	ignorant	of
married	to	superior / inferior	to
die	of (disease)	congratulate	on
comply	with	insist	on
a picture	of	independent	of

Note: prefer never takes than: "He prefers death to dishonour." "Superior", "senior", "junior" also take to, not than.

"The exam begins ___ Monday ___ 9 a.m." Answer: on ... at.
"She has been ill ___ three days." Answer: for (a period). "She has been ill ___ Friday." Answer: since.
"Divide the sweets ___ Ali and Sara." Answer: between (two people).
"He was congratulated ___ his success." Answer: on.
Error spotting: "She is married with a doctor." Correction: married to.
Error spotting: "Students are entitled a free library card." Correction: entitled to (missing preposition).

Parts of the day take in (in the afternoon), but at night.
"Accused of", not "accused from/with".
Prefer ... to, not prefer ... than.
Some verbs change meaning without their preposition: pay someone vs pay for something.
Error questions often test a missing preposition, not a wrong one.