What is a Preposition?A preposition is a word used to connect nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words found in a sentence. Prepositions act to link the people, objects, time and locations of a sentence. Prepositions are usually short words. They are normally placed directly in front of nouns. In some cases, prepositions can be found in front of gerund verbs (verbs that act as nouns that name an activity rather than a person or thing). Examples: Jogging is a hobby of mine. Marisa quit smoking years ago. Some people prefer getting up early in the morning. Show A nice way to think about prepositions is as the words that help glue a sentence together. They do this by expressing position and movement, possession, time and how an action is completed. Several of the most frequently used words in all of English, such as of, to, for, with, on and at, are prepositions. Examples of PrepositionsIn the following sentences, examples of prepositions have been italicized. As you read, consider how using different prepositions or even different types of prepositions in place of the examples might change the relationship between the rest of the words in the sentence.
Types of PrepositionsThere are three types of prepositions, including
Prepositions of time are those such as before, after, during, and until; Prepositions of place are those indicating position, such as around, between, and against; Prepositions of movement (direction) are those that indicate direction, such as across, up, and down. A. Prepositions of Time Prepositions of time examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.
The five examples above make it seem difficult, with five different prepositions used to indicate when something happened. However, there is a set of guidelines that can help decide which preposition to use: For years, months, seasons, centuries and times of day, use the preposition in:
For days, dates and specific holiday days, use the preposition on.
For times, indicators of exception and festivals, use the preposition at:
Before and after should be much easier to understand than the other examples of prepositions of time. Both are used to explain when something happened (past tense), happens (present tense) or will happen, (future tense), but specifically in relation to another thing.
Other prepositions of time could include: during, about, around, until, and throughout.
B. Prepositions of Place Prepositions of place examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.
The guidelines for using prepositions of place are as follows: On is used when referring to something with a surface: Words in italics are examples of surfaces:
At is used when referring to something at a specific point. Examples of specific points are in italics:
In is used when referring to something that is inside or within confined boundaries. This could be anything, even a country
Many other prepositions of place, such as under, over, inside, outside, above and below are used in
C. Prepositions of Movement (Direction) Prepositions of movement describe how something or someone moves from one place to another. The most commonly used preposition of movement is to, which usually serves to highlight that there is movement toward a specific destination. Prepositions of movement examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.
Other more specific prepositions of movement include through, across, into, and off. These prepositions can sometimes get mixed up with others. While they are similar, they have individual meanings that add understanding to the movement. Through refers to moving directly inside something and out the other end.
Across refers to moving from one side to another.
Into refers to entering or looking inside something.
Off refers to moving away and often down from something or leading in a direction away from something
Up, over, down, past and aroundalso indicate directions of movement:
How to Recognize a PrepositionRecognizing prepositions can be challenging because they do not always follow a consistent pattern in terms of their position in a sentence and because they can sometimes have more than one spelling. What is true about prepositions, however, is that they are almost always short words, many of which are less than six letters. Prepositions are used with nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Here are some examples. A. Prepositions with Nouns
B. Prepositions with Verbs
C. Prepositions with Adjectives
When adjectives have the same or very similar meaning to each other, they can take the same preposition: Even when adjectives have opposite meanings they might also take the same preposition: One of the most efficient ways to know which adjectives and prepositions link well is to recognize and memorize adjective-preposition combinations. Below are some commonly used adjective-preposition links are found below and are in bold for easy identification.
Adapted from https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/preposition/ What is a word used to show placement or relationship between words in a sentence?A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and another word in the sentence.
What is the placement of words called?Positional words (or positional language) are words and phrases that describe the position of people or objects. Examples would be the words 'in', 'under', and 'over', or the phrases 'on top of', or 'next to'. An example of a sentence containing positional words would be 'The puppet is on the castle.
Which part of speech shows the relationships between parts of a sentence?A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses, and indicates the relationship between the elements joined. Coordinating conjunctions connect grammatically equal elements: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses that are not equal: because, although, while, since, etc.
What word class is used in expressing relationship between two words in a sentence?A conjunction is a word that is used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. There are many conjunctions in the English language, but some common ones include and, or, but, because, for, if, and when.
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