0:00 Hi everybody, my name is Alicia.
0:02 In this lesson, we're going to look at 10 different ways to use the
0:05 preposition by.
0:07 I'm going to cover some of the most important
0:10 and most common uses of this preposition,
0:12 but of course there are some other uses such
0:15 as phrasal verbs and in idioms
0:17 and so on.
0:18 Today, we're going to look at 10 very important
0:20 and very great to know uses of this preposition.
0:24 Let's get started.
0:25 Okay.
0:26 First, let's look at this one.
0:28 Number one here.
0:29 This is the use of by to mean near or close,
0:34 referring to its position from you.
0:37 So, for example, he lives by the park.
0:40 He lives by the park.
0:42 In this sentence, we could replace by with near
0:44 or close and the sentence would remain the same.
0:48 The meaning would remain the same.
0:49 He lives near the park or he lives close to the park.
0:53 Same thing with our next example.
0:55 My bag is by the door.
0:57 My bag is by the door.
0:59 So, my bag is near the door
1:01 or my bag is close to the door.
1:05 Last example, she put her coffee by the computer.
1:08 She put her coffee by the computer.
1:11 Again, this means near.
1:12 She put her coffee near the computer.
1:15 So, all of these refer to by as meaning close to something else.
1:20 Okay, let's move on to the second use.
1:23 The second use is to describe the method of travel.
1:28 So, we use this by along with a way of getting somewhere like a
1:33 bus,
1:34 an airplane, being on foot, and so on.
1:37 Here are examples.
1:39 We went by bus.
1:40 We went by bus.
1:42 So, by comes before the method of transportation.
1:46 In this case, bus is our method.
1:48 We went by bus.
1:50 Second example, I've never traveled by train before.
1:54 I've never traveled by train before.
1:57 Again, by comes before the transportation type here.
2:02 Okay?
2:03 Last example, she's coming by car.
2:06 She's coming by car.
2:08 So, again, we have car here, our method of transportation,
2:12 and in front of that is by.
2:14 She's coming by car.
2:15 Please note the only time
2:17 that we don't use this is
2:18 when we're talking about traveling on our feet.
2:21 When we talk about traveling on foot, we use the expression on foot.
2:26 So, it's about 10 minutes on foot.
2:28 We don't say by foot or by walking, really.
2:32 We say on foot.
2:33 So, this is a special exception to this one.
2:36 If you're talking about buses, trains, cars, and bicycles, and so on,
2:40 you can use this by method.
2:43 Okay, let's go on to number three.
2:45 Number three is also about a method, but it's a little more open.
2:49 We use by to describe methods of doing things.
2:54 So, there are two kinds of breakdowns that I want to talk about here.
2:58 The first one is using by before an i n g word.
3:03 So, this is a way of expressing the process of something.
3:07 Let's look at some examples.
3:09 First, turn on the car by pressing this button.
3:14 Turn on the car by pressing this button.
3:16 So, in this situation, we have by before this i n g word,
3:21 by pressing.
3:22 So, this sentence is saying you can turn on the car
3:26 if you do this action.
3:28 So, this part here is telling us the method of turning on the car.
3:33 Turn on this car by pressing this button.
3:36 Let's look at another example.
3:38 Download the file by clicking this link.
3:41 Download the file by clicking this link.
3:44 So, again, we have by, and next is an i n g word,
3:48 by clicking.
3:49 So, clicking is this motion on the computer or tapping on a smartphone.
3:54 So download the file by clicking this link.
3:56 This is another way to say you can download this file
3:59 if you click this link.
4:01 So we're talking about the method of doing an action.
4:05 One more example of this.
4:07 Make an appointment by calling our office.
4:10 Make an appointment by calling our office.
4:12 So again, we have by followed by an ing word.
4:16 Make an appointment by calling our office.
4:20 So we're talking about the manner
4:21 or the method by
4:22 which we can do this thing.
4:25 Okay.
4:26 So this is the first one that I wanted to talk about.
4:28 The first way that we use this by to describe the method of doing
4:33 something.
4:33 We always do this with an ing word after by.
4:37 There is a second type
4:39 that I want to talk about
4:40 and we typically use this to talk about communication,
4:43 methods of communication, and methods of making payments.
4:48 So this in this case we follow by with a noun.
4:53 A noun that's related to communication or noun that's related to payments.
4:57 So let's look at these examples.
4:59 I have two examples I want to talk about here
5:01 and a couple of notes for you.
5:03 So first example, I'd like to pay by credit card.
5:06 I'd like to pay by credit card.
5:08 So in this situation it's a payment situation, right?
5:11 I'd like to pay by credit card.
5:13 Here we have by followed by the noun phrase credit card, okay?
5:18 So this is a very common way to express I want to use my
5:21 credit card.
5:22 It's just a different way of saying I want to use my credit card.
5:26 So here we have I'd like to pay by credit card.
5:30 Okay, that's one type of payment.
5:31 Maybe you have a debit card, for example,
5:33 I'd like to pay by debit card.
5:35 You might also hear people say I'd like to pay by check.
5:38 It's possible you might hear that depending on the region,
5:42 but we also in this kind of case,
5:44 we tend to use the word with a lot though.
5:48 So, for example, I'd like to pay with a credit card
5:51 or I'd like to pay with a check.
5:54 We also use this when we're talking about cash.
5:58 We do not use by when we want to pay with cash.
6:01 We don't say I'd like to pay by cash.
6:03 Totally incorrect.
6:04 We often say I'd like to pay with cash
6:07 or I'd like to pay in cash.
6:10 You might also hear no preposition.
6:11 I'd like to pay cash for this, please.
6:14 So, these are all common ways of expressing payment.
6:17 But, we typically use by before a card type.
6:20 I'd like to pay by card type
6:22 or maybe by bank transfer
6:24 or wire transfer as well.
6:26 Okay, let's look at the next one.
6:28 The next one is a communication example.
6:31 So, when I say communication, I mean for example,
6:34 phone or fax or email or maybe online meeting and so on.
6:39 So, let's look at this example
6:40 and then I'll talk a little bit about some other patterns
6:43 that you might see here.
6:45 So, we sent the contract by express mail.
6:49 We sent the contract by express mail.
6:51 So, in this situation,
6:52 we're expressing a kind of communication or in this case transfer of information.
6:57 We sent the contract by express mail.
7:00 So, express mail means physical mail, right?
7:03 Express means fast, right?
7:05 So, we sent the contract by express mail.
7:08 You might see this used to talk about the type of mail
7:12 that was used to send something.
7:14 So, maybe in your country or in your region,
7:16 there's like a basic kind of mail, express mail,
7:20 maybe there's a special kind of super express mail, whatever.
7:24 If it's important to express that kind of thing, like the level of mail,
7:28 you can use by to do that.
7:30 By is the most natural way to do that.
7:32 However, in recent years,
7:34 we use things like Skype or other online meeting things like Zoom, for example,
7:40 but we don't really use by to express that.
7:43 For example, if you want to talk about a meeting
7:45 that you have on Skype
7:46 or on Zoom,
7:47 we generally don't use by to talk about that.
7:50 We generally don't say,
7:51 "We're going to have the meeting by Zoom."
7:53 or "We're going to have the meeting by Skype."
7:55 We don't use by in these online situations.
7:59 Instead, we typically use on.
8:01 "We're going to have the meeting on Skype."
8:02 or "We're going to have the meeting on Zoom."
8:05 So, please keep this one in mind.
8:07 So, this by tends to be used by I'm sorry.
8:10 It tends to be used to talk about mail, physical mail.
8:13 You might also see it used to talk about faxes,
8:15 like he sent it by fax.
8:18 You may also see the word via, v i a, used in these cases.
8:23 So, there as you can see,
8:25 there are a few different ways that we can express communication,
8:28 but I just want to point out
8:29 that sometimes we do use by in these cases to talk about payments
8:34 and to talk about communication.
8:36 But, generally, if you want to express the method of doing something,
8:39 this is a really easy one to remember.
8:41 By plus an ing verb.
8:44 Okay, that was a lot of information.
8:46 Let's go along to the next one then.
8:48 The next one, number four, is by used to express a deadline.
8:53 So, a deadline, that means the finish point for something.
8:56 So, let's look at our examples.
8:57 Submit your application by Friday.
9:00 Submit your application by Friday.
9:02 This means Friday is the deadline.
9:05 So, you have until Friday to do this action.
9:09 Okay?
9:10 The next example, "Call me by 3:00 p.m."
9:13 Call me by 3:00 p.m.
9:15 So, by is before the deadline for something.
9:18 So, 1:00 p.m. is okay, 2:00 p.m. is okay,
9:20 3:00 p.m. is the last chance that you have.
9:23 So, by comes before our deadline, our stop point for the action.
9:28 Last one, "Finish the proposal by next month."
9:32 Finish the proposal by next month.
9:35 So, all of these sentences mean
9:37 that it's okay to do
9:38 that action before the deadline.
9:41 This by just marks the last possible point for something.
9:45 A lot of learners ask about the difference between by and until,
9:50 and I'm not going to talk about it in this lesson
9:52 because there are a lot of differences,
9:54 but I have a video about this,
9:56 so definitely check out the by versus until video that I've made,
10:00 and I hope that that will help answer your questions about those differences.
10:04 Okay, let's move on to number five.
10:06 Number five, we can use by
10:08 when we want to express
10:10 that we are doing something alone,
10:12 or that someone else is doing something alone.
10:15 There's a very specific grammar point we need to keep in mind here.
10:18 So, let's look at these examples.
10:20 First, she likes to go to the movies by herself.
10:23 She likes to go to the movies by herself.
10:26 So, this by herself means alone, just one person, in this case, she.
10:31 So, she likes to go to the movies by herself.
10:34 We use by before this word, herself, herself, okay?
10:39 This is an example of what's called a reflexive pronoun.
10:43 We're going to see this kind of pronoun in all of these example sentences,
10:48 so you'll notice a pattern here.
10:49 Let's look at the next one first, then.
10:52 I ate lunch by myself today.
10:54 I ate lunch by myself today.
10:56 So, I ate lunch by again, myself.
10:59 So, we have this reflexive pronoun here after by.
11:03 This sentence expresses I ate lunch alone today.
11:06 It's just a different way to express that idea.
11:09 One more example, my son got dressed by himself this morning.
11:13 My son got dressed by himself this morning.
11:16 So, this is probably a sentence about a very, very young boy.
11:19 So, my son got dressed by himself.
11:22 Again, reflexive pronoun.
11:24 So, when you want to use this by plus himself, herself, myself pattern,
11:30 it always is used to express that something is happening alone.
11:34 Someone is doing something alone.
11:36 We will always use these reflexive pronouns to do that.
11:39 So, if you want to know more about reflexive pronouns,
11:41 I also have a video about this topic
11:43 that you can check out
11:44 as well for more information.
11:46 So, in this example, I used herself, I've used myself, and himself.
11:51 We also have ourselves
11:53 or themselves and so on to talk about more than one person,
11:56 but in those cases,
11:58 we're talking about doing something with just two people in these cases.
12:02 So, I hope that you check out
12:03 that other video about reflexive pronouns
12:05 if you want to know more about this,
12:07 but this is how we use it together with by.
12:10 Okay, on to the next one.
12:11 Number six.
12:12 Number six is a very simple use of by.
12:15 We use by to talk about the author or the creator of something.
12:20 So, the creator of your favorite book, your favorite song, your favorite movie,
12:24 your favorite piece of art, and so on.
12:26 When you want to talk about the person who made it,
12:29 you can use by to do that.
12:31 For example, my favorite book was written by George Orwell.
12:35 My favorite book was written by George Orwell.
12:39 So, by comes before the name of the person who created that thing,
12:43 in this case, a book.
12:44 Second example.
12:46 This film was directed by Christopher Nolan.
12:49 This film was directed by Christopher Nolan.
12:51 So, we have by before the director's name,
12:55 the movie director's name in this case, Christopher Nolan.
12:58 So, again, this is talking about the creator of a work
13:01 or the director of a work.
13:03 Okay, one more.
13:04 Her favorite piece of music is by Beethoven.
13:08 Her favorite piece of music is by Beethoven.
13:11 In this case, we have just one name, Beethoven.
13:14 So, some artists, some creators are known by just one name,
13:17 or maybe they have a performance name or something like that.
13:20 If it's a very famous artist like Beethoven, for example,
13:24 most people just know it by one name, and that's okay.
13:27 So, we use by before the creator's name to talk about the person who
13:31 made something.
13:32 Okay, let's move along to number seven then.
13:35 Number seven is to pass a location
13:38 or to stop somewhere for a short time.
13:40 We can use by to do both of these things.
13:43 And you might think, well, how do I know which is which?
13:45 How do I know if it means pass or stop somewhere?
13:48 Generally, we can understand from the situation, from the context.
13:51 So, let's take a look at these examples.
13:54 First, I drove by your house today.
13:57 I drove by your house today.
13:59 So, here I have drove, past tense of drive, drive a car,
14:03 by your house today.
14:05 In this case, it means I passed by your house today.
14:08 So, how do we know that it means pass and it doesn't mean stop?
14:12 Well, probably, if I'm telling the other person, "Hey,
14:16 I drove by your house today."
14:17 I probably didn't talk to that person, right?
14:20 I'm letting them know, "Oh, I was in your neighborhood.
14:22 I was in the area."
14:24 So, if I stopped at the house,
14:25 I would have talked to the other person, right?
14:27 They probably would already know.
14:29 In this case, it means pass.
14:31 I passed by your house today is another way to understand that.
14:35 Okay, next one.
14:37 Can you please stop by the supermarket?
14:39 Can you please stop by the supermarket?
14:41 So, here we have by before the location.
14:44 Can you please stop by the supermarket?
14:46 So, how do we know?
14:47 Does this mean pass or does this mean stop somewhere?
14:50 Well, our big hints are here, stop.
14:52 Can you please stop by, which means go very quickly to the supermarket.
14:57 It would be very strange to say, "Can you please pass the supermarket?"
15:01 right?
15:01 This sounds like a request.
15:02 We probably would start a request for something with this expression, right?
15:06 So, this one means,
15:07 "Can you please stop at the supermarket very quickly for something."
15:11 Okay, last one.
15:13 We walked by the library yesterday.
15:15 We walked by the library yesterday.
15:17 Here we have walked, again past tense, by our location, by the library.
15:23 We walked by the library yesterday.
15:25 This sounds like it's probably passing.
15:28 We walked past the library yesterday is how we understand this.
15:32 So, generally, based on the situation,
15:34 we can understand if it means past
15:36 or if it means stop somewhere for a short period.
15:40 Okay, we're almost done.
15:41 Let's continue on to number eight now.
15:43 Number eight is using by to talk about changes or differences with numbers.
15:50 Let's take a look at these examples.
15:51 First one.
15:52 Sales increased by 15% this year.
15:56 Sales increased by 15% this year.
15:59 This means that the total number of sales increased, so it went up.
16:05 This by shows us how much of a change, okay?
16:10 So, one big question
16:12 that people have is what should I Is it two
16:14 or is it by?
16:15 What should I use here?
16:17 Sales increased to 15% means that from some like, for example,
16:23 13% or 10% or something like that.
16:26 The point that the sales reached was 15%.
16:30 However, sales increased by 15% means the total change was 15%.
16:37 So, by and to communicate very different things.
16:41 By is telling us the difference in change.
16:44 To is talking about the point that was reached, so they are very different.
16:48 Keep this one in mind.
16:50 We tend to use this a lot with the verbs increase and decrease,
16:55 also just go up and go down.
16:57 So, we'll see that again in another example.
17:00 So, sales increased by 15% this year.
17:03 That's the total change.
17:05 Okay, next example.
17:06 The temperature went down by 5°.
17:10 The temperature went down by 5°.
17:12 So, that means the temperature decreased by 5°.
17:16 This means the total change was 5°.
17:19 For example, from 30 to 25 that's a 5° change, right?
17:24 Again, if we say the temperature went down to 5°,
17:27 that means the end temperature was 5°.
17:31 So again, we cannot use two and by in the same way.
17:34 By tells us the change or the amount of difference.
17:38 Okay, last one.
17:39 We missed our bus by 5 minutes.
17:42 Oh sorry, we missed our bus by 2 minutes.
17:44 So this sentence is a little bit different here.
17:47 So in this case we're talking about like a change
17:49 or a difference in schedule.
17:51 For example, if the bus leaves at 12:00,
17:54 we arrive to catch the bus at 12:02,
17:58 we can say we missed our bus by 2 minutes.
18:02 So we can express this difference in time with by.
18:06 So when you miss something or you're late for something,
18:09 you can use by to do this.
18:11 Like, oh my gosh, I was late for my plane by an hour.
18:14 So we're expressing that time with by.
18:18 Okay, let's move on to number nine.
18:20 Number nine is using by for units of measurement.
18:24 This one is a very straightforward and easy to remember one.
18:27 So we use by to talk about the dimensions of an object.
18:32 So dimensions mean the height and the length and the depth of something.
18:36 So let's look at our examples.
18:38 This room is 5 m by 10 m.
18:41 This room is 5 m by 10 m.
18:45 So we use by to talk about kind of the total area of a
18:50 space.
18:51 So when we're talking about the length and the width,
18:53 we connect them with by.
18:56 We can do this with three units of measurement, too.
18:59 So I mentioned earlier length and width and height or depth,
19:03 depending on the object.
19:04 We can do that with something like this.
19:07 Her bag is 30 cm by 60 cm by 28 cm.
19:12 So this gives us three units of measurement. 30 cm by 60 cm by
19:17 28 cm.
19:19 So, we connect all of those different measurements with the word by.
19:24 Okay, one more example.
19:25 Our living room is about 13 ft by 18 ft.
19:30 So, in this case, I'm using feet as the measurement.
19:33 This is a common unit of measurement in the USA.
19:36 This room is Oh, sorry.
19:38 Our living room is about 13 ft by 18 ft.
19:42 So, typically we express two dimensions,
19:45 two units of measurement at the same time in this manner,
19:48 as in example sentence one and example sentence number two,
19:52 when we talk about a room or maybe a house or something like that.
19:55 If it's an object, we might use three different dimensions to talk about those.
20:00 But, we connect all of those with by.
20:02 Okay, let's move on to our last one for this lesson.
20:05 The last use of by I want to talk about is with passive.
20:10 So, we use passive sentence structures sometimes to hide information
20:15 or if we don't know who did an action
20:17 or if we just want to focus on the effects of the action.
20:20 But, sometimes we want to indicate
20:23 or we want to share at the end of the sentence who did the
20:26 action.
20:27 We can do that with by.
20:29 Let's take a look.
20:30 The file was sent by my co-worker.
20:33 The file was sent by my co-worker.
20:36 So, a basic passive sentence is just the file was sent.
20:40 The file was sent.
20:41 This sentence is 100% correct.
20:43 But, sometimes maybe it's important to share a little bit about who did the
20:47 action.
20:48 In this case, we have my co-worker.
20:50 So, who did the action?
20:51 My co-worker.
20:52 Okay, next example.
20:54 Her bag was stolen by a man on the subway.
20:58 Her bag was stolen by a man on the subway.
21:00 So, this is answering who stole it?
21:03 A man on the subway.
21:04 So, we connect the two with by here.
21:08 So, again, her bag was stolen is perfectly fine.
21:11 If you don't know who stole the bag, that's okay.
21:13 You can just use that sentence.
21:14 But, if you want to include some extra information about who did that action,
21:19 you can do it with by.
21:20 Okay, last one.
21:22 Our reservation was changed by the staff at the hotel.
21:26 Our reservation was changed by the staff at the hotel.
21:30 So, who changed our reservation?
21:32 The staff at the hotel.
21:34 We add this information with by to the end of the basic passive sentence.
21:39 So, you can do this
21:40 if you want to give
21:41 that information and you want to use a passive sentence structure for some reason.
21:46 So, it's up to you
21:47 if you want to use an active
21:48 or a passive sentence here.
21:49 That's your choice, but here is how you can share about who did
21:53 that action.
21:53 Just use by to do that.
21:55 Okay, great.
21:56 So, those are 10 uses of the preposition by.
22:00 As I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, of course,
22:03 there are many other ways to use by.
22:05 For example, we use it in phrasal verbs.
22:08 We use the word by in idioms.
22:10 And there are other expressions that we see by used from time to time.
22:14 Of course, I cannot cover all uses of by in one video
22:17 because there are too many,
22:18 but I hope that these 10 uses will help you a lot
22:21 and help you to understand the different ways
22:24 that you can use this preposition in your communication.
22:27 So, I hope that this lesson was helpful for you.
22:29 If you have any questions
22:30 or comments or if you want to practice making some example sentences with this
22:34 word,
22:35 please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video.
22:38 Also, if you like this lesson,
22:39 don't forget to give it a thumbs up
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22:42 if you haven't already.
22:43 Also, check us out at englishclass101.com for some other things
22:46 that can help you with your English studies.
22:49 Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon.
22:52 Bye.
