American Accent 11 : Things and Locations

Prepositions show where things are, like places, people, and time.
                                  The classic definition is : 
                  "What a plane can do to a cloud."
                 In a cloud, by a cloud, near a cloud, etc.


This shows where a plane can be compared to a cloud. But remember, it can be in many other places too. To describe locations, you can use one word (like "above") or a group of words (such as "on top of"). Words like "below," "behind," "before," "beside," and "beneath" have the stress on the second part, and the first part is made shorter (like "b'low," "b'hind," "b'fore," "b'side," "b'neath").

Prepositions of Location
Choose the appropriate location word.

1. The little boy hides  _______________  the table.

There Is / There Are

Patterns are really important. Instead of trying to memorize lots of words, you can learn a few patterns and mix them up. Let's talk about the verb "to be" again. Now that we know about location prepositions, we can use "there" with the verb "to be" to talk about where things are in general, like "there is" and "there are." Instead of just single words, we're now combining phrases. Look at the table below. In the first column, we have "there + is/are." In the second column, we put in nouns with describing words. The last column is about where things are. Learn these different phrases and then put them together in order: A-B-C.


There Is vs. There Are
Listen to the audio and pay close attention to the intonation.