6.66 USAGE NOTE

Some prepositions can only be used with a restricted group of nouns.

For example, 'aboard' is used with a noun referring to a form of transport, such as 'ship', 'plane', 'train', or 'bus', or with the name of a particular ship, the flight number for a particular plane journey, and so on.

• There's something terribly wrong aboard this ship, Dr Marlowe.
• He's not aboard the Morning Rose.
• ...getting aboard that flight to Rome.
• He climbed aboard a truck.

Here is a list of nouns which you can use with 'aboard' to indicate position:

• aircraft carrier, bike, boat, bus, coach, ferry, jet, oil platform, oil-rig, plane, rocket, ship, sledge, space shuttle, train, trawler, truck, yacht'Astride' is mainly used to indicate that a person has one leg on each side of something, usually sitting on it or riding it.

• He whipped out a chair and sat astride it.
• I made it there astride one of these courageous little donkeys.

When 'before' is used to indicate position, the object is usually a person or group of people.

• Leading representatives were put firmly in their place before a live television audience.
• He appeared before a disciplinary committee.

'All over' usually has a large or indefinite area as an object.

• Hundreds of Jews all over the world are finding their way back to their ancestral traditions.
• There were pieces of ship all over the place.