VOA慢速英语2018--The Preposition 'By'

 

If you can write or speak even just a little English, you have surely used prepositions² -- words like "to," "in," "on," "at" and "by." A preposition¹ is a word or group of words that shows direction, location or time. Today on Ask a Teacher, we have a question about one such word.

Question:

Hi, I'm Frank³ John from Tanzania. I don’t how know to use "by" in a sentence. –Frank John, Tanzania

Answer:

Hello Frank!

It sounds like you know the meaning of “by” but are unsure of how to use it with other words. Let me try to help!

“By” is usually a preposition but sometimes acts as an adverb. It can be used in many ways, but today we will talk about four uses as a preposition and show you where it is placed in a sentence.

Close to / Next to

Let's start with using “by” to show place or location. When we use "by" this way, it means "close to" "next to" or "beside." Here are two examples. Note that “by” comes before the place.

Meet me at the show! I’ll be seated by the door.

The university is by the sea.

Past a place

Now for the second use. When “by” is placed after motion-related verbs -- like "run," "drive," and "walk" -- it often shows movement past a place. Let’s listen:

I walked by the river on Sunday. It was a beautiful day!

Did you drive by my building today? I thought I saw you.

Not later than

Another way we use “by” is to talk about time on a clock. When we use it this way, it means “not later than.” The word “by” comes before the time. Have a listen:

Your appointment is at 1:00. Please arrive by 12:45.

We should leave by 7:00 to beat the crowds.

Alone / Without help

The last use we will consider today is about doing something alone or without any help. We make this meaning with “by” followed with a reflexive pronoun⁴, such as "myself" or "yourself."

Here are two examples:

He moved the heavy table all by himself.

I’m sorry, I couldn’t go. Did you go by yourself?

And that’s Ask a Teacher.

I’m Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

location – n. a position or place

adverb – n. a word that is often used to show time, manner, place, or degree

reflexive – adj. showing that the action in a sentence happens to the person or thing that does the action

1 preposition   

n.介词

参考例句：

• You should cancel this preposition in the sentence.你应该删去句子中的这个介词。
• We use different preposition to talk about time,days,months and seasons.我们用不动的介词来谈论时间，日，月和季节等。

2 prepositions   

n.介词( preposition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She lays a lot of emphasis on the usage of prepositions. 她把重点放在介词的使用上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Prepositions and conjunctions are particles. 介词和连词是小品词。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 frank   

adj.坦白的，直率的，真诚的

参考例句：

• A frank discussion can help to clear the air.坦率的谈论有助于消除隔阂。
• She is frank and outgoing.她很爽朗。

4 pronoun   

n.代词

参考例句：

• The relative pronoun is often dropped if it is the subject.关系代名词做受词时常被省略。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。