Learn English – Which one(s) of “up”, “above”, “over”, “on” and “upon” is (or are) correct for this sentence

prepositionsword-differenceword-usage

  1. Could you please put the pen over the book?

  2. Could you please put the pen on the book?

  3. Could you please put the pen upon the book?

  4. Could you please put the pen above the book?

  5. Could you please put the pen up the book?

Which of these sentences is/are correct?

For the incorrect ones, I hope you add extra information like, “This word (‘over’, ‘on’, etc.) cannot be used that way, but it could be used this way:” and give an example.

Best Answer

2) Could you please put the pen on the book?

is the most likey way someone would say this. 3) "upon" is also OK but is more likely to occur in literature. These refer to placement.

1) Could you please put the pen over the book?
4) Could you please put the pen above the book?

These refer to location. This would imply the pen is located above the book, which would not be likely in the setting of your examples, but could be possible with other wording. For example:

Could you please put the pen on the shelf above the book?

Finally -

5) Could you please put the pen up the book?

does not make sense in this phrase. "up" refers to inside in a sense.
An example where it would be OK:

Could you please put the medicine up your nose?

Related Topic