What's The Difference? English Prepositions BY | FROM | OF

0:00 Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

0:04 Today we're going to learn about

0:06 three important prepositions in English grammar.

0:09 You'll learn the difference between the preposition

0:11 by, the preposition from and the preposition of.

0:16 And in English, they can be prepositions of time,

0:19 they can be prepositions of place,

0:21 of movement but actually several languages have only

0:26 one word for all three of these prepositions.

0:29 So it's really easy to see how by, from and of can

0:34 be a little confusing when you try to use them in English.

0:37 But not anymore!

0:38 I'll show you when to use them and how to use each of these prepositions.

0:43 Plus, there's a quiz at the end of this lesson to test what

0:47 you know and make sure you're using

0:49 these prepositions correctly in your English sentences.

0:53 Excuse my casual attire today, it is extremely hot.

0:58 Thirty-eight degrees.

0:59 Not ideal for filming but let's give it a shot anyway.

1:07 Which of these prepositions is the most difficult for you to use?

1:12 Let me know down in the comments.

1:14 Let's start today's lesson by reviewing each of these prepositions individually.

1:20 After that, we'll take a look at some of the cases where all three

1:24 of these prepositions are possible but the meaning

1:27 or the way that it's used is slightly different.

1:30 There are lots of different ways to use the preposition of in English.

1:35 Today, we're going to look at the top four most common uses,

1:39 starting with possession and belonging.

1:43 So, we use of to show a relationship

1:46 of possession or belonging between two nouns.

1:50 Members of the club get free parking.

1:52 Charles became the King of England.

1:56 And this is similar to the way that we

1:59 use apostrophe S or the possessive S in English.

2:03 My friend's mother is Indonesian.

2:06 So the apostrophe S shows that the mother belongs to the friend.

2:11 We can use of to recreate this same sentence but keep the exact same meaning.

2:17 The mother of my friend is Indonesian.

2:21 So in this version, of indicates

2:23 the relationship between the friend and the mother.

2:27 This construction with of is very common

2:30 in languages like German but in English,

2:33 it is much more common to use that possessive apostrophe S when

2:38 we're talking about people and use of when we're talking about things.

2:45 Sarah's house is down the road.

2:48 Rather than: The house of Sarah is down the road.

2:52 The colour of her hair was amazing.

2:55 Rather than: Her hair's colour was amazing.

2:59 We use of in quantifying expressions that describe

3:03 a unit or an amount or a number of something.

3:07 This is really common with uncountable nouns.

3:10 When we need a way of measuring or counting an uncountable noun,

3:15 we'll say something like: A cup of flour.

3:20 A grain of sand.

3:22 A drop of rain.

3:24 Thirty per cent of the population.

3:27 All of these nouns are uncountable so to describe how much there is,

3:33 we need one of those quantifying expressions.

3:37 A cup of, a grain of, a drop of, thirty per cent of.

3:43 And we use of to explain the amount of countable nouns as well.

3:48 There were hundreds of people at the airport.

3:52 There are millions of stars in the Milky Way.

3:55 We can use of to describe the contents of something.

4:00 What's inside a box or a packet or a container of something.

4:05 A bag of chips.

4:07 A bottle of water.

4:09 A book of poetry.

4:13 A box of clothes.

4:15 And finally, for the fourth most common way of using of, we

4:20 use of in expressions to show the exact position of something.

4:25 The top of your head.

4:28 The back of the bus.

4:31 The side of the house.

4:33 The corner of the street.

4:36 The front of the queue.

4:39 I know how much prepositions frustrate you

4:42 especially when you're trying to move from B1 into B2 or C1 levels and yet

4:49 you're still making mistakes with these little words.

4:52 I've designed my Preposition 8x8 Course as a step-by-step

4:57 guide for intermediate to advanced English learners

5:00 to go beyond the basics and learn eight different

5:04 ways to use eight prepositions in everyday spoken English.

5:09 In the course, you'll learn advanced word patterns

5:12 that will take your skills to the next level.

5:15 Plus, every lesson includes an interactive speaking practice with me.

5:20 So you'll not only study and learn about prepositions,

5:24 you'll also practise and use them naturally in your spoken English.

5:30 And guess what?

5:31 I've got a free lesson from that course that you can try out for yourself.

5:36 All of the details are down in the description but I'll also remind you about

5:41 it at the end of this lesson so you can go and check it out then.

5:45 From can be a preposition of time or of place.

5:50 As a preposition of place,

5:52 it describes the place where something starts so it links a noun.

5:57 a person or a thing, to its origin or its starting place.

6:02 He sent me a postcard from Spain.

6:05 My friend went to Spain and sent me a postcard.

6:09 The postcard started in Spain before it travelled to me here in Perth.

6:15 That hot wind is coming from the north.

6:18 So the wind originated in the north.

6:22 That's where it started and that's why it's so hot today.

6:25 The bread is from the bakery on High Street.

6:29 As a preposition of time, from shows the time when something starts.

6:35 The shop is open from 9am.

6:37 The opening hours start from 9, not before.

6:41 They start at 9.

6:43 The rules will come into place from tomorrow.

6:46 So the rules start tomorrow, not before.

6:51 The sculpture dates from the 17th century.

6:55 The sculpture was made in the 17th century and that's when it started to exist.

7:02 And finally, from is a preposition of distance in both time and space.

7:08 The beach is five kilometres from here.

7:11 The airport is seven kilometres from the city.

7:15 So from indicates the distance between these two places.

7:19 But we can also express distance in time.

7:22 I'll set an alarm for five hours from now.

7:26 So five hours into the future.

7:28 Five hours after or later than now.

7:31 And that brings us to by.

7:34 By is another really versatile preposition.

7:38 It can be used in lots of different ways but the main way that we

7:42 use the preposition by is to indicate

7:45 the person or the thing that completes an action.

7:49 So you could say that it introduces the doer of an action.

7:53 A book by a famous author.

7:56 Who wrote the book?

7:59 A famous author.

8:00 A painting by Picasso.

8:03 Picasso is the doer.

8:05 He painted the picture.

8:06 We use by like this quite a lot in passive sentences.

8:11 So when you want to introduce the doer

8:13 of an action in a passive sentence, use by.

8:17 The car was driven by a woman with blue hair.

8:21 I was shocked by what I saw on the news.

8:24 By can also describe a method.

8:27 It can indicate how something is done.

8:30 The ring was made by hand.

8:33 We travelled by train.

8:36 She improved her English by reading the newspaper.

8:39 So in all of these examples, by describes a method of completing an action.

8:46 How did we travel?

8:48 By train.

8:49 How did she improve her English?

8:52 By reading the newspaper.

8:54 When by is a preposition of place, it means near or to the side of something.

9:02 She lives by a park means she lives near or next to a park.

9:07 Frankie is always by my side.

9:11 Frankie stays close.

9:13 She stays next to me.

9:14 When by is a preposition of time, it means not later than.

9:20 So at or before.

9:24 Imaginary watch.

9:26 They're usually home by nine.

9:29 They get home at nine or maybe sometimes before nine but not after nine.

9:37 I've got another lesson that dives into the difference between by and until.

9:43 It's right up here and it's quite useful

9:44 when we're talking about using by related to time.

9:49 And finally we can use by to indicate measurements and amounts.

9:55 The room is three metres by four.

9:58 Sea levels rose by twenty centimetres.

10:02 They sell oil by the barrel.

10:04 Now, if only it was that simple.

10:08 But English prepositions are tricky little things.

10:12 So let's go a little bit deeper into those moments

10:14 where you need to choose between by, from and of.

10:20 A book by James Clear is a book written by James Clear.

10:25 He wrote this book.

10:27 It's a book by him.

10:29 But a book from James Clear is a book that James Clear gave me, right?

10:36 So in this case, he is the starting point of the book.

10:40 It's where it came from.

10:42 But a book of James Clear's is a book that belongs to James Clear.

10:48 Maybe he lent it to me because he wanted me to read it.

10:52 A book of James Clear's is a book that belongs to him.

10:57 And a little earlier, we heard the example of a book of poetry,

11:02 meaning that this book is a collection of poetry or it contains poetry.

11:09 Do you see how changing something as small and insignificant

11:13 as a little preposition can actually

11:16 completely change the meaning of a sentence?

11:19 It's crazy, huh?

11:20 And when it comes to the verb made, things get a little more complicated.

11:26 When we say made from, we mean that it

11:29 has been used to manufacture or to create something else.

11:35 It describes that there's been a transformation

11:38 during the process of making that object.

11:40 It's changed from one thing into something else.

11:44 Linen is made from flax.

11:46 Or paper is made from wood pulp.

11:50 In both these examples,

11:52 the verb made can be substituted for the verb manufactured.

11:57 When we say made of, we mean composed of.

12:02 So it describes the basic material of something,

12:05 something that you can still see or touch, it still exists in its original form.

12:11 Her dress is made of silk.

12:14 The table is made of wood.

12:16 So in these examples, made can be substituted for composed.

12:22 And then of course, there's made by.

12:25 So by can describe either how something was made or who made it.

12:32 The dress was made by my friend.

12:35 Or the dress was made by hand.

12:39 And there's one more area where I know some of you get

12:42 a little bit lost and that's talking about a change in number or amount.

12:48 Let me show you what I mean.

12:50 There has been an increase of fifteen per cent over the last five years.

12:55 The price has increased by fifteen per cent over the last year.

12:59 The price has increased from $1 to $1.15.

13:04 These three sentences all convey the same information.

13:08 They're all saying pretty much the same thing.

13:11 So how do you know when to use of, by or from?

13:17 There's a little trick to this that I want to share.

13:20 In this sentence, increase is a noun.

13:23 An increase.

13:25 So actually, this is a collocation where we use the noun increase.

13:31 with the preposition of.

13:33 So, when increase is a noun, it's followed by of.

13:38 But here, increase is a verb.

13:42 When increase is a verb, it collocates with by.

13:46 The price has increased by fifteen per cent.

13:50 And here, from indicates the starting point.

13:54 Prices started at one dollar and ended at one dollar fifteen.

14:00 So there's a couple of rules here.

14:03 When you're talking about a change to an amount or number,

14:07 then verbs like increase, rise,

14:12 fall and decrease are used with the preposition by.

14:17 And the nouns of these same verbs, an increase, a rise,

14:23 a fall, a decrease, these all collocate with the preposition of.

14:30 Now these ones are all extra tricky because

14:33 the noun and the verb forms are exactly the same.

14:37 Thank you very much English!

14:40 So just make sure you're paying attention to the structure of the sentence.

14:45 Look out for the article.

14:47 That's your clue that it's a noun rather than a verb.

14:50 I'll give you one more example.

14:53 Water levels fell by one metre.

14:57 We have our verb, by and then the amount.

15:01 Experts noticed a fall of one metre in the water level.

15:07 So we have noun, of and then the amount.

15:12 Okay let's test your skills with a quick prepositions quiz.

15:18 Choose the correct preposition.

15:19 Of, from or by.

15:29 The house is made of bricks.

15:37 Plastic is made from oil.

15:47 The number of visitors to the National Park

15:50 has increased from 300 per week to 1500.

16:01 The cake is a gift from my mum.

16:10 The cost of airfares has increased by 15% over the past three years.

16:22 I sent my mum a Christmas card from Germany while I was travelling.

16:34 The chair is made of plastic.

16:42 The lasagna was made by my mum.

16:45 I hope this lesson was interesting and that it helped

16:48 to make these three important prepositions a little easier to understand.

16:54 Make sure you head over to the mmmEnglish website and check out my courses.

16:58 They go into much more detail about prepositions and how

17:02 to use them than anything you'll find here on YouTube.

17:05 And you can check out the rest of the Prepositions course while you're

17:09 there and get a special offer for all of my gorgeous mmmEnglish students.

17:14 The links and details are all in the description

17:17 below or head over to the mmmEnglish website.

17:20 I'll see you there!