Prepositions in Arabic (حُرُوف الجَرّ hurūf al-jarr) are generally used to show position as in فِى fī (in) and مِن min (from) or time as in فى السّاعة الخَامِسَة fī as-sā’a al-ẖamisah (at five o’clock)

Sometimes they refer to more abstract concepts as in the case of عَن ‘an (about) or عَلَى الأقَل ‘ala al-aqall (at least).

These particles have deeper meanings than their counterparts in English and are used in different contexts to express a wide range of meanings.

The most common حُرُوف الجَرّ hurūf al-jarr are:

من، إلى، حتى، في، عن، على، اللام، والكاف، والباء، 

مِن min	From	جِئتُ مِنَ المَسجِدِ	I came from the masjid
إِلَى ilā	To	إِلَى أَينَ تَذْهَبُ يا أَخِي؟	(To) Where are you going, my brother?
فِي fī	in	أَسكُنُ في المَدِينَةِ	I live in the city
عَلَى ‘alā	on	نِمتُ عَلى السَّرِيرِ	I slept on the bed
لِ li	For	هَذَا الكِتَابُ لِزَيدٍ	This is Zaid’s book
كَ ka	Like	لَيسَ العَالِمُ كَالجَاهِلِ	The scholar is not like the ignorant one
بِ bi	With	كَتَبْتُ بِقَلَمٍ أَحمَرَ	I wrote with a red pen
حَتَّى hattā	Till, until	قَرَأتُ كِتَابِي حَتَّى نِمتُ	I read my book until I slept

Important Notes

The noun after a proposition is always genetive (it takes the state of Jarr). The letters ب,ك,لا,م are always attached to the noun, unlike the other preposition letters which occur separately. Arabic prepositions are “mabni” which means that they have mostly fixed word-endings regardless of their position.