Englishfor English speakers
by
Preposition
—
near or next to.
The mailbox is by the bus stop.
—
at some time before (the given time).
Be back by ten o'clock!
—
if something is done by somebody, it is done through their action
The matter was decided by the chairman.
The boat was swamped by the water.
He was protected by his body armour.
—
if something is created by somebody, they are the creator, author, etc.
There are many well-known plays by William Shakespeare.
—
shows how someone does something
I avoided the guards by moving only when they weren't looking.
—
using the rules or logic of.
I sorted the items by category.
—
with a change of. In this case, by shows how much something has changed.
Our stock is up by ten percent.
—
shows how slowly, or how quickly, someone does something (used in the form "X by X" or "by Xs")
We went through the book page by page.
We crawled forward by inches.
—
If you multiply mathx/math by mathy/math, you multiply mathx/math × mathy/math.
Five multiplied by seven is 35.
—
If you divide mathx/math by mathy/math, you find how many mathy/maths are in mathx/math.
35 divided by seven is five.
phone
Noun
—
A phone is a tool for speaking to people who are far away.
Can I borrow your phone? I need to call my friend.
The phones ringing. Can you answer it?
"Goodbye!" she said, and put the phone down.
—
A phone is a smartphone.
This classroom does not allow students to use their phones during class.
phone
Verb
—
If you contact somebody using a phone, you phone them.
Hey, I'll phone you tonight and we can decide what to do.
I phoned up my friend and asked her to come over at 8:00.