Around...

Today I am going to show you how we use around, which is both an adverb and a preposition. I am sure you will find learning this English Grammar helpful, especially if you are preparing for the TOEIC or TOEFL exam.  We use around to mean approximately:

• There are around thirty English Language schools in New York City.
• Jack is tall. He’s around 190cm.

We use around to mean near:

• There are a lot of restaurants around my office.
• You can see many interesting people around Times Square.

We use around with the meaning of encircle or surround something:

• The hotel is build around a swimming pool.
• We sat around the table during the meeting.

We use around with the meaning of moving in a circle or toward the other side of (like a corner):

• The man walked around the corner.
• The kids ran around the tree.

We use around to talk about moving to many different places in one area of a city, office, shop, etc:

• We walked around Chinatown for three hours on Saturday.
• Let’s look around the museum.

We use turn around to talk about changing the direction or movement in an opposite direction:

• The road was closed so I had to turn the car around and go a different way.
• Everyone turned around when we heard the loud noise in the office.

We use be around to mean exist in a location:

• I’ll be around until 3:00, then I have to leave the office.
• That café has been around since 1970.