Prepositions of Movement — Test Questions
Six mixed questions on onto, across, through, off, and into — distinguishing motion toward a surface, over a flat area, and inside an enclosed space.
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The cat jumped ___ the table and knocked over a glass.
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onto
'Onto the table' — movement from below to the surface. 'On' would mean it was already there.
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She ran ___ the road to catch the bus on the other side.
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across
'Across the road' — from one side to the other of a flat surface.
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The train goes ___ a long tunnel before reaching the city.
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through
'Through the tunnel' — moving inside an enclosed space from one end to the other.
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He fell ___ his bike and hurt his knee.
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off
'Fell off' — leaving a surface. A bike is a surface you sit on.
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She opened the door and walked ___ the room.
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into
'Into the room' — movement from outside to inside.
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Come down ___ that wall immediately! It's too high to play on.
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off
'Come down off' — leaving a surface. The wall is a surface.
Prepositions of Movement: What This Test Checks
The movement section tests whether a learner can track the path of an action, not just its destination. The clearest contrast tested here is 'on' versus 'onto': the cat 'jumped onto the table' describes arriving on a surface from somewhere below, while plain 'on' would only describe the cat already sitting there with no motion implied. This distinction matters because many learners default to 'on' for any table-related sentence regardless of whether movement is involved, producing a sentence that technically parses but describes the wrong scene.
Three more prepositions test the shape of the space being crossed. 'Across' fits flat, two-dimensional surfaces — a learner runs 'across the road' from one side to the other. 'Through' fits three-dimensional, enclosed spaces that the mover passes inside of and out the other end — a train goes 'through a tunnel', not across it, because a tunnel encloses the train on all sides. 'Into' marks the moment of entering an enclosed space from outside it — 'walked into the room' — and contrasts with plain 'in', which would describe simply being inside with no arrival implied. Finally, 'off' consistently marks leaving a surface, whether falling off a bike or climbing down off a wall — both bikes and walls count as surfaces you were on top of.
She ran across the road to catch the bus. (flat surface, side to side)
The train goes through a long tunnel. (enclosed space, end to end)
He fell off his bike and hurt his knee. (leaving a surface)
Last updated: · Satori Editorial