This video looks at the difference between 'over' and 'above' - both prepositions of place. These prepositions are often the same, but in many situations they have a different meaning, so if you want to know the difference, watch this video lesson.

The PDF test he mentions on the video is here: PDF TEST.

Hello! This video is about 'over' and 'above'. We've got a baby in a crib, we've got the picture of a bridge and there's Jim waiting to go over the bridge and we've got the Queen and some other bits and pieces - hope you enjoy it!

We're looking at 'over' and 'above' and here's a picture of a mother and a baby. What's the mother doing? She's putting a blanket over the baby, so I'll just write here 'she's putting  (oops) a blanket over the baby, she's putting a blanket over the baby'. And it's something like this: it's going above from side to side.

Now I want to add something to this scene, here's a picture on the wall and the picture is above the cot, or crib. So I'll just write over here 'there's a picture above the cot  (or if you like, the crib)'. I think 'crib' is more American and 'cot' is more British but we use both. And here's a little drawing to indicate the relationship of 'above'. One is higher than the other but not necessarily covering it.

Now let's move on to new scene. Here we have a bridge going over the river, so I'll just write on the left there 'there's a bridge over the river' or if you like the bridge is going over the river'. And here's a young man, this is Jim and you can probably guess Jim is going go to over the bridge - he's walking over the bridge. So I'll write on the left here 'Jim is walking over the bridge' or you could say 'across', I'll write 'across' there because in this case 'across' or 'over' are really quite similar. But he's not going above the bridge, look at that, now he's above the bridge, that's a bit silly, that's not going to happen so let's put him back on the ground and we'll just take him over once more - he's going over the bridge, that's it.

Just to remind ourselves I'll go back to the earlier scene - she's putting a blanket over the baby, not across, over. Back to the bridge again, he's walking over or across the bridge. And here's a little diagram to illustrate, here's an object and the dotted line is going over.

Now here's another picture, I'm going to add in. You'll probably recognise her, that's the Queen of the United Kingdom and the man is holding an umbrella over her head because it's raining. So he is holding an umbrella over the Queen's head. Now I want to move on to some non-physical uses of 'over' and 'above', so I'll start off with a blank screen and just write 'over' and 'above' up there.

Now I'll write a couple of examples, here's the first one; 'she's over eighteen' and I'll just put in brackets there 'years old' because that's what over eighteen means. And here's another one 'your luggage is over 20 kilos', something you don't want to hear at the airport! And the last one, number three; 'it costs over 50 euros', something else that you don't want to hear!

And what do these three examples of 'over' have in common? I think they have in common 'more than' and I'm just writing 'more than' at the top here. Now on the right I'll put 'above', here we go, 'above' and here's my first example: 'the temperature is above freezing', above freezing.

And here's the second example, 'Man. United (Manchester United) is above Liverpool in the league'. Man. United and Liverpool are football teams - I don't know much about football but I know there's a league and I know those teams are in it. Here's the last example - 'I'm fifth in the class, but Sam is above me'. Now those three uses of 'above' all have something in common which I'll write up here. I think 'above' here equals 'higher than'.

And now to finish I'm going to show you five film titles, here they are: 'Bridge Over the River Kwai', 'Over the Hill', 'Over the Top', 'Above the Law' and 'Above Suspicion'. And now I'm going to do some little drawings to show the meaning. First of all, 'over', 'Over the River Kwai' - there's the bridge going over. The 'Over the Hill' there's the line going over the top of the hill and 'Over the Top', probably from the First World War when the soldiers had to come out of the trenches and over the top, and there's the movement.

Now the last two, 'Above the Law' and 'Above Suspicion' are a bit different. You've got something like the law (I'll write it there) and the person is above, at a higher level than the law, or suspicion, and the person is above or at a higher level.

Below your screen there's a link to a test yourself page which is a PDF you can print or do on screen. Scroll down the PDF and you'll find the answers. Thanks for watch