Dear Jack, welcome to the A to Z English podcast.
My name is Jack, and today I have another dear Jack episode for you.
This is where listeners write in with their problems, and I try to give them some advice.
And today we have a language learning problem.
So this is right in my wheelhouse.
As we say in English, if something is in your wheelhouse, it means it's in your area of expertise.
It's an area that you are comfortable giving advice in.
So here's the letter that I received, or the email I received from a student in China.
Dear Jack, I'm a college student from China trying to improve my English, and I'm facing a challenge that's making me feel a bit overwhelmed.
I often struggle with the correct use of prepositions in sentences.
It's confusing when to use in, on, or at.
I don't want to sound awkward or make mistakes when speaking or writing, but I'm finding it hard to master this aspect of English.
Do you have any advice or tips to help me navigate the tricky world of prepositions?
Sincerely lost in prepositions well, lost in prepositions.
First off, I want us to congratulate you on writing an excellent message to me.
You used all of your prepositions correctly in your email, and a lot of students struggle with prepositions because sometimes they don't make sense.
Like the, the pencil is on the table, but the clock is on the wall.
That's kind of weird, right, to say on the wall because a wall is vertical, it's up and down, but a table is flat.
But in English, we just use on for both of them.
So one of the ways that you can, and this is going to sound really not, you know, not very scientific, but I think practice, practice, practice is one of the best ways that you can improve the little things in your language journey.