Prepositional phrases with by are a common aspect of the English language that are used to indicate a variety of different relationships between words in a sentence. These phrases often indicate the means or agent by which an action is performed, the person responsible for an action, or the time when an action will occur. Some examples of prepositional phrases that include the word “by” include “by car,” “by phone,” “by the deadline,” “by myself,” “by the end of the month.”
The following article provides the list of common prepositional phrases with BY with meaning & examples and ESL image.
Prepositional Phrases with BY
List of useful preposition collocations with the preposition BY.
- By a whisker
Meaning: By a very small distance
E.g. I’m lucky to be alive. The bus missed me by a whisker.
- By accident
Meaning: Accidentally; unintentionally
E.g. Sorry, I knocked over the vase by accident.
- By accident
Meaning: As the result of some undesigned, unintended, unrelated, natural, or random occurrence
E.g. The car got totaled by accident; a giant snowdrift fell off the church roof.
- By accident
Meaning: By chance; unexpectedly; as the result of an unrelated series of events
E.g. She overheard the information by accident.
- By and large
Meaning: Mostly, generally; with few exceptions
E.g. It was, by and large, an unexceptional presentation.
- By any chance
Meaning: Possibly; perhaps
E.g. Are you by any chance looking for a new staff member?
- By default
Meaning: In absence of any opposing action
E.g. If we don’t do something, they’ll win by default.
- By definition
Meaning: According to, or as a matter of, definition
E.g. This property holds for all polygons; and since, by definition, all triangles are polygons, it holds for all triangles.
- By definition
Meaning: Necessarily; always; certainly
E.g. Almost by definition, a conversation requires both parties to accept each other’s viewpoints to some extent.
- By far
Meaning: To a considerably large extent, easily
E.g. Paris is by far the largest city in France.
- By hand
Meaning: Manually; without the use of automation or machines
E.g. The computers went down and they had to do all the bookkeeping by hand that day.
- By heart
Meaning: Knowing completely; as having committed completely to memory
E.g. He used to live in that town, and he still knows all the streets by heart.
- By mistake
Meaning: By accident; without intention to do so
E.g. Today I took your packed lunch to work by mistake.
- By no means
Meaning: Certainly not; definitely not
E.g. By no means am I suggesting that euthanasia should be outlawed, but rather that we should look at its inherent risks.
- By now
Meaning: At some time in the near past
E.g. My parents should have arrived by now. I wonder what’s keeping them.
- By oneself
Meaning: Alone; without assistance or help from others
E.g. You ate the whole thing by yourself?
- By oneself
Meaning: Alone, without another’s company
E.g. He sat by himself in the corner, waiting quietly.
- By rail
Meaning: Via a train
E.g. Cotton was increasingly shipped by rail.
- By sail
Meaning: Via a sailboat or sailing ship
E.g. It took many weeks to cross the Atlantic by sail.
- By steam
Meaning: Via a steam-powered boat or ship
E.g. The Nineteenth Century innovated navigation by steam.
- By steam
Meaning: Via a steam train
E.g. This line once took passengers by steam to the frontier.
- By the way
Meaning: Incidentally
E.g. His mother will be coming for dinner tomorrow, and, by the way, she volunteered to bring dessert.
- By trade
Meaning: As a profession; professionally
E.g. Although he was a gifted musician, he was a plumber by trade and never played music professionally.
Prepositional Phrases with BY | Picture
Common Prepositional Phrases with BY
Lily Liu
Monday 6th of December 2021
To Whom It May Concerned: Hope that you could add more "Tenses" and give more examples for students to understand. Thank you!