Over: How and When to Use in English
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Over
Main meaning of OVER:
• ending, duration:
• ending, duration:
game over end of the game
over time with the passing of time
• on, above, on top of:
Polly put a sheet over the TV set. Polly put a sheet on top of the TV set, covering it.
to go over the border to cross the border
to jump over a gate to jump above a gate to the other side
• in all places, everywhere:
all over the world in every part of the world
• more than, too, too much:
My grandmother is over 90 years-old. My grandmother is more than, older than 90 years old.
This pizza is over-cooked. This pizza is cooked too much.
• the passing from one place to another, from one person to another, from one country to another:
to sleep over to stay the night in a place
Hand the telephone over to me. Pass me, give me the telephone.
• turning, returning:
Please turn the sheet over. Please rotate the sheet of paper so that you can see the other side of it.
• repetition:
over and over again repeatedly, again and again
Exercise 1
"I have been a loyal Delavigne customer for over six weeks". This means that:
"I have been a loyal Delavigne customer for over six weeks". This means that:
The letter mentions nothing about Karl being an employee of Delavigne.
Karl's statement, "I have been a loyal customer for over six weeks", expresses that Karl became a client (or customer) of Delavigne six weeks ago. The use of the term "for" indicates the duration (or length of time) which Karl has been a customer of the Delavigne Corporation.
Writing letters does not necessarily express that someone is a "customer". This is not the best choice here.
This is not what Karl is expressing when he writes that he has been a loyal Delavigne customer for over six weeks. His sentence indicates that he continues to be a Delavigne customer, not that he stopped six weeks ago.
Exercise 2
Bruno has done a lot of traveling. He's been to sixty countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. He's seen the Taj Mahal twice! Bruno has traveled around the world several times, he still wants to see more.
Bruno has done a lot of traveling. He's been to over 1 sixty countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. He's even 2 seen the Taj Mahal twice! Even though 3 Bruno has traveled around the world several times, he still wants to see more.
1 over: 'Over' is the best choice here. It tells us that Bruno has been to 'more than' sixty countries.
1 even: 'Even' is grammatically incorrect in this construction. It cannot precede 'sixty countries' in this case. We could say, however: 'He's even been to sixty countries'.
1 always: 'Always' is grammatically incorrect in this construction. 'Always' would not appear in between the preposition 'to' and 'sixty'.
1 still: 'Still' is grammatically incorrect. 'Still' would not appear between the preposition 'to' and 'sixty'.
2 even: 'Even' emphasizes the fact that Bruno has seen the Taj Mahal twice, which is rare or extraordinary. He has not been once, but twice!
2 more: 'More' is grammatically incorrect in this sentence. We cannot write our say 'He's more seen'. We could say, however: 'Bruno has seen the Taj Mahal more than once'.
2 even more: 'Even more' is grammatically incorrect in this construction. We cannot say: 'Bruno has even more seen...' We could say, however: 'Bruno was able to see even more of the Taj Mahal on his second visit'.
3 Even though: 'Even though' emphasizes the fact that Bruno wants to continue to travel, 'despite' having traveled so much already.
3 Even so: 'Even so' does not fit in this construction. 'Even so' is usually used as a response to a previous comment to express or introduce the idea of contrast.
3 Even more: 'Even more' does not fit in this construction. It makes no sense here.
3 Even: 'Even' is grammatically incorrect here. By itself, 'even' cannot link the two clauses of this construction ('Bruno traveling the world' + 'Bruno still wants to travel').
Exercise 3
Use the following words to fill in the blanks in the text below. Be careful! Some words may be used more than once, or not at all.
over | in | out | into
When he was a child, Bob had the opportunity to travel all the United States. His father was a great inventor, although for most of his life he had worked the South Dakota coal mines. But then one day he invented bubble-gum! Bob's father took his family across the country, promoting his new product. time, bubble-gum became just as popular as goldfish and the toaster oven, and Bob's father became a very rich man. But tragedy soon struck the family when Bob's father was assassinated Kentucky, by a man whose wife had choked to death on bubble-gum.
over | in | out | into
When he was a child, Bob had the opportunity to travel all the United States. His father was a great inventor, although for most of his life he had worked the South Dakota coal mines. But then one day he invented bubble-gum! Bob's father took his family across the country, promoting his new product. time, bubble-gum became just as popular as goldfish and the toaster oven, and Bob's father became a very rich man. But tragedy soon struck the family when Bob's father was assassinated Kentucky, by a man whose wife had choked to death on bubble-gum.
Use the following words to fill in the blanks in the text below. Be careful! Some words may be used more than once, or not at all.
over | in | out | into
When he was a child, Bob had the opportunity to travel all over 1 the United States. His father was a great inventor, although for most of his life he had worked in 2 the South Dakota coal mines. But then one day he invented bubble-gum! Bob's father took his family across the country, promoting his new product. Over 3 time, bubble-gum became just as popular as goldfish and the toaster oven, and Bob's father became a very rich man. But tragedy soon struck the family when Bob's father was assassinated in 4 Kentucky, by a man whose wife had choked to death on bubble-gum.
over | in | out | into
When he was a child, Bob had the opportunity to travel all over 1 the United States. His father was a great inventor, although for most of his life he had worked in 2 the South Dakota coal mines. But then one day he invented bubble-gum! Bob's father took his family across the country, promoting his new product. Over 3 time, bubble-gum became just as popular as goldfish and the toaster oven, and Bob's father became a very rich man. But tragedy soon struck the family when Bob's father was assassinated in 4 Kentucky, by a man whose wife had choked to death on bubble-gum.
1 over: This is the best choice here. 'All over' is a common use of the preposition 'over' which has a meaning similar to 'around', but has a more restricted use. It is almost always seen in phrases similar to: 'He has been all over the world'.
2 in: This is the best choice here. Because someone works 'inside' coal mines, we say 'working in the coal mines'.
3 Over: 'Over time' is a common expression in English which means 'after a certain amount of time has passed' or 'during a specific period of time'. 'In time' is a similar expression, also acceptable here.
4 in: This is the best choice here. We use 'in' to describe location 'within' a state, city or country.
Exercise 4
Use the following words to fill in the blanks within the text below. Be careful! Some words may be used more than once, or not at all.
over | on | in | to
Once, when she was just a child, Polly followed her parents the border into Mexico. Her father was wanted for assisting a bank robbery. He was innocent - it was his evil twin that did it - but the family saw it as an opportunity to travel all the world. Tijuana, the family was stopped by some undercover FBI agents. Fortunately, the case of mistaken identity was solved, and the Watson family enjoyed the next few weeks in beautiful, sunny Tijuana. Polly was sad when the trip was , as it was the best family vacation / FBI investigation she had ever had.
over | on | in | to
Once, when she was just a child, Polly followed her parents the border into Mexico. Her father was wanted for assisting a bank robbery. He was innocent - it was his evil twin that did it - but the family saw it as an opportunity to travel all the world. Tijuana, the family was stopped by some undercover FBI agents. Fortunately, the case of mistaken identity was solved, and the Watson family enjoyed the next few weeks in beautiful, sunny Tijuana. Polly was sad when the trip was , as it was the best family vacation / FBI investigation she had ever had.
Use the following words to fill in the blanks within the text below. Be careful! Some words may be used more than once, or not at all.
over | on | in | to
Once, when she was just a child, Polly followed her parents over 1 the border into Mexico. Her father was wanted for assisting in 2 a bank robbery. He was innocent - it was his evil twin that did it - but the family saw it as an opportunity to travel all over 3 the world. In 4 Tijuana, the family was stopped by some undercover FBI agents. Fortunately, the case of mistaken identity was solved, and the Watson family enjoyed the next few weeks in beautiful, sunny Tijuana. Polly was sad when the trip was over 5, as it was the best family vacation / FBI investigation she had ever had.
over | on | in | to
Once, when she was just a child, Polly followed her parents over 1 the border into Mexico. Her father was wanted for assisting in 2 a bank robbery. He was innocent - it was his evil twin that did it - but the family saw it as an opportunity to travel all over 3 the world. In 4 Tijuana, the family was stopped by some undercover FBI agents. Fortunately, the case of mistaken identity was solved, and the Watson family enjoyed the next few weeks in beautiful, sunny Tijuana. Polly was sad when the trip was over 5, as it was the best family vacation / FBI investigation she had ever had.
1 over: 'Over' is used here as a preposition meaning 'across' or 'from one side to the other'. 'Over' is often used to describe distance in this way. A border is the boundary or frontier between two locations.
2 in: In English we say 'assisting in (a bank robbery, a ceremony)' to indicate someone's participation in an event. The primary sense of the verb 'to assist' is 'to help' or 'to aid'.
3 over: 'Over' is used here as a preposition meaning 'around'. To travel 'all over' the world, means to travel 'to many different places'.
4 In: This is the best choice here. We often use the preposition 'in' to describe a location 'within' or 'inside' a city or country (Tijuana, in this case).
5 over: 'Over' is often used as a synonym of 'finished' when referring to something such as a 'vacation', a 'trip' or a 'game'.
Exercise 5
All of the following sentences use over in different senses. Some of them are incorrect. Choose 'Correct' or 'Incorrect' for each sentence.
It took a long time before Luna got over the death of her cat 'Mittens' =
She was tired of looking at her husband, so she put a pillow over his face =
They were over with their game, so they all went home =
It took a long time before Luna got over the death of her cat 'Mittens' =
She was tired of looking at her husband, so she put a pillow over his face =
They were over with their game, so they all went home =
All of the following sentences use over in different senses. Some of them are incorrect. Choose 'Correct' or 'Incorrect' for each sentence.
It took a long time before Luna got over the death of her cat 'Mittens' = Correct 1
She was tired of looking at her husband, so she put a pillow over his face = Correct 2
They were over with their game, so they all went home = Incorrect 3
It took a long time before Luna got over the death of her cat 'Mittens' = Correct 1
She was tired of looking at her husband, so she put a pillow over his face = Correct 2
They were over with their game, so they all went home = Incorrect 3
1 Correct: This sentence is correct. The expression 'to get over' is a common one. It expresses 'recovery' after a disturbing or sad event. In this case, it took some time before Luna 'felt good again' after the death of her cat 'Mittens'.
1 Incorrect: This sentence is not incorrect.
2 Correct: This sentence is correct. We use 'over' here to describe the action of putting the pillow 'on top of' the husband's face. 'To put something over something' is synonymous with 'To cover with something'.
2 Incorrect: This sentence is not incorrect.
3 Incorrect: This sentence is incorrect. Although 'over' can often be used to mean 'finished' (as in 'game over' or 'the vacation was over'), it cannot be used when followed by the preposition 'with'. It is only an adjective. We could say, however: 'Their game was over, so they went home'.
3 Correct: This sentence is not correct.
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