These questions ask you to identify the path of movement: its goal, direction, boundary or surface. Sketch the path mentally, then choose the word that states that relation rather than merely naming a nearby place.
Read the path before choosing
Use to when the destination is presented as reached: the hikers went to the shelter. Get to also means reach a destination. Toward and towards are both correct when movement is only in a direction: the dog ran toward the gate but turned away. With arrive, the following noun decides the form. Use arrive at for a point or specific place, as in arrive at the terminal, and arrive in for a city or country, as in arrive in Canada.
| Movement signal | Choice and example |
|---|---|
| A goal that is reached | Use to or get to: cycle to the museum, get to the harbour. |
| Direction without a stated arrival | Use toward or towards: move towards the light. |
| Crossing inward or outward through an enclosure boundary | Use into or out of: rush into the hall, step out of the lift. |
| Crossing an open surface from side to side | Use across: walk across the square. |
| Passing within surrounding boundaries | Use through: travel through a cave. |
| Moving to or away from a surface | Use onto or off: climb onto a stage, slide off a bench. |
| Movement to one's home | Use no preposition: come home, get home. |
Common traps
| Tempting route | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| Putting to after arrive | Arrive does not use to. Classify the destination: a city or country takes in, while a point or specific place takes at. |
| Using a direction word when the sentence says the destination was reached | Toward or towards leaves arrival open. Choose to or get to when reaching the goal is part of the meaning. |
| Using from or off for movement out of an enclosed place | From names only an origin, and off belongs to surfaces. Choose out of when the path crosses from inside to outside. |
| Swapping across and through | Across views the route as side-to-side movement over an open area. Through places the route inside surrounding boundaries. |
| Adding to before home | Home behaves differently from an ordinary destination noun after go, come and get. Use the bare form. |
Try it
Select all that apply: which sentences explicitly mark movement across a boundary into an enclosed space?
- The child ran in the cabin and stayed still.
- The child ran into the cabin from the porch.
- The diver jumped out of the pool onto the deck.
- The diver jumped into the pool from the deck.
The visitor moved in the exit's direction but stopped before reaching it. Complete using exactly walk, toward or towards, and the exit: The visitor began to ___
A climber lost contact with the ladder's surface and fell away from it. Which sentence uses the dedicated surface-leaving preposition rather than a general origin marker?
- The climber fell from the ladder.
- The climber fell off the ladder.
- The climber fell out of the ladder.
- The climber fell onto the ladder.