Correct Use of 10 Most Confusing Prepositions

1. Make of/ Made from

Both refers material used. 
Made of is used when the shape of material is not changed. 

Eg:

• A notebook is made of papers. 
• A house is made of bricks. 

Make from is used when shape of the material has undergone a total change. 

Eg:

• Butter is made from milk. 
• Sugar is made from sugarcane. 

2. In/With

In is used in the following situations:

• Place thought of as an area: in London, in Europe. 
• Within a location: in the room, in the building. 
• Large units of time: That happened in March, in 1992. 
• Within a certain time: I will return in an hour. 
• By means of: write in pencil; speak in English. 
• Condition: in doubt, in a hurry, in secret. 
• A member of: He is in the orchestra, in the navy. 
• Wearing: The boy in the blue shirt. 
• With reference to: lacking in ideas, rich in oil. 

With is used in following situations: 

• Accompanying: He came with her; I have my keys with me. 
• Containing: Here is a book with a map of the island. 
• By means of, using: I repaired the shoes with glue. 
• Manner: with pleasure, with ease, with difficulty. 
• Because of: We are paralyzed with fear. 
• Agreement: I agree with you. 

3. Opposite/In front of

Opposite is used meaning antonym and position in front. In front of always means front position. 

Eg:

• Ram is sitting opposite to Shyam. (Ram is facing Shyam) 
• People living on one side of a street will talk of the houses on the other side as the houses opposite rather than the houses in front of us. 
• His house is opposite to ours. 

In front of is used in the following ways: 

• He parked the car in front of the hotel. 
• He put the plate on the table in front of us. 

4. By/Before

By a time/by a date usually implies before that time or date. 

Eg:

• The train starts at 7.15 so you had better be at the station by 7.00. 

By +a time expression structure is often used with future perfect Tense. 

Eg:

• By the end of July I’ll have read all those books. 

Before can be used as a preposition or as a conjunction or as an adverb. 

Eg:

• Before signing this agreement let us discuss each and every point. 
• Before you sign this you can discuss it with your father. 
• I have seen her somewhere before. 

5. After/Afterwards

After must be followed by a noun, pronoun or gerund. 

Eg:

• After breakfast, he booked a taxi. 
• After attending the class, I went to meet Rahul. 

If we do not like to use a noun/Pronoun or gerund, we cannot use After but we can use Afterwards. 

Eg:

• Don’t have a meal and run immediately afterwards. 
• I felt very light on my feet afterwards. 

6. But/Except

Both have the same meaning and are usually interchangeable.
After nobody/none/nothing/nowhere etc. usually but is used.

Eg: 

• Nobody but Shyam knew the way. 
• Nothing but the best is sold in our shop. 

Except is used when prepositional phrase comes later in a sentence. 

Eg:

• Nobody knew the way except Shyam. 
• He works every day except Sunday. 

Note: After but and except bare infinitive (infinitive without to) is used.