Prepositions of Movement: From, Down, Around, etc. — Explanation

Learn how to use prepositions of movement like from, down, around to describe direction and motion in English. Simple A2-level rules and examples!

Prepositions of Movement: From, Down, Around, etc.

Prepositions of movement tell us where someone or something is going. We use them with verbs that mean to move, like go, walk, run, come, drive, fly, swim, and so on.

Common Prepositions of Movement

Preposition	Meaning	Example
to	movement toward a place	She goes to school every day.
from	movement starting at a place	He comes from Italy.
into	movement to the inside	The cat jumps into the box.
out of	movement to the outside	He walks out of the room.
up	movement to a higher place	She climbs up the stairs.
down	movement to a lower place	He runs down the hill.
across	movement from one side to the other	They walk across the street.
through	movement inside something from one side to the other	The river goes through the city.
around	movement in a circle or nearby	We walked around the park.
along	movement following a line	He rides his bike along the river.
past	movement going by something	She walks past the library every morning.

Examples in Sentences

• He walks to work every morning.
• The bird flies over the trees.
• We ran around the playground.
• She came from her friend’s house.
• The boy jumped into the water.
• They walked across the bridge.
• He went down the stairs quickly.

Tip

• Use "from" to show where you're coming from and "to" to show where you're going. She walked to school from her house.

Practice Idea

Look at a picture or map and describe the movement:

• “The car goes along the road.”
• “The children run around the park.”
• “The man walks across the bridge.”

In short:

Use prepositions of movement to talk about where and how something moves, like up, down, across, through, around, etc.