The picture of a tunnel will help us understand the use of many prepositions of place.

There are many preposition of place in the English language. This is an example of some of them. I call these a preposition tunnel.

We have a man that's on top of the tunnel, a man that's on the tunnel, a man that's behind the tunnel. A man in the clouds that is above or over the tunnel, a man in front of the tunnel, a man under the tunnel. A group who are near, close to, beside or next to the tunnel. One man who is between the two other men. A man who is far away from the tunnel, a man who is in the tunnel, and a man who is walking through the tunnel.

Let's practice. These are some of the most basic prepositions – in, on, above or over, far away from, next to or beside, and below or under.

Sometimes using the article the can make a big difference in the preposition. As you can see, this man is in THE front of the car and the other man is in front of the car. The little boy is in THE back of the car and the other boy is in back of the car. Notice the big difference.