Prepositions of Movement
Level A2 · Prepositions
Use to for movement toward a destination: go to school, walk to the station, come to my house. To answers the question Where are you going?
Use into when movement ends inside an enclosed space, and onto when it ends on top of a surface: go into the room, jump onto the table. The opposites are out of (leaving an enclosed space: get out of the car) and off (leaving a surface: get off the bus, fall off the chair).
Use through for movement inside or through an enclosed medium (a tunnel, a forest, a crowd): walk through the tunnel. Use across for movement over a flat, open area, from one side to the other (a road, a river, a field): swim across the river.
Use along for movement that follows a line (a street, a river, a path): walk along the beach. Use past for movement beyond a point: drive past the school. Use towards for movement in a direction, without necessarily arriving: walk towards the exit. Use over for movement above something, often covering an obstacle: jump over the fence, fly over the mountains.
The most common mistake is confusing the static, no-movement prepositions (in, on, at) with their movement equivalents (into, onto, to). Prefer go into the room over go in the room when you mean the action of entering — both are heard, but into makes the movement explicit; and with destinations say I went to Paris, never I went in Paris.
These prepositions almost always follow a verb of motion: go, walk, run, drive, swim, climb, jump, fly, fall. If the sentence answers Where (to)?, expect a movement preposition, not a static one.