What are Prepositions?
Words that join other words or word groups are called connectives. One important kind of connective is the Preposition.
Prepositions show relationships. Many prepositions, like against, in, near, on, and through, help to show location. Others, like before, during, since, and until, show a relationship of time. Still others show different kinds of relationships. These others include about, for, from, like, of, to and with.
I worked at noon. I worked until noon. I worked past noon.
A preposition is a word used with a noun or pronoun, called its object, to show the
relationship between the noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence.
Prepositions like at, until, and past begin phrases.
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object.
Notice the nouns used as objects of the prepositions in these phrases.
off base except Max by the red car beyond next June
Finding prepositional phrases. Underline the prepositional phrases.
1. The banker is a great-grandson of Jesse James.
2. Armadillos always give birth to quadruplets.
3. The cyclists struggled against the wind.
4. Between the two houses is a large, white fence.
5. Our class met some visitors from China.
6. Their cottage is near Lake Cumberland.
7. Have you eaten since breakfast?
8. The seahorse carries its eggs in a pouch.
9. Diane has worked there for two months.
10. How can you eat a hamburger without catsup?
Prepositional Phrases
A phrase is a group of related words that is used as a single part of speech and does not contain both a verb and its subject.
Has been singing [verb phrase; no subject]
For David and her [Prepositional phrase; no subject or verb]
A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of a preposition, a noun or a pronoun that serves as the object of the preposition, and any modifiers of that object.
In the office for him of the one that got away
The object of a preposition may be compound.
Arlene recited the poem to the teacher and the class. [Both teacher and class are objects of preposition to.]
Exercise A For each of the following sentences, underline the prepositional phrase.
Example: 1. I rode a bus through the peaceful countryside.
1. The bus drove by a large red barn.
2. An enormous picture was painted on the wall that faces the road.
3. The picture reached above the second story.
4. It showed an eighteenth-century man in a white shirt.
5. The picture was painted by a local artist named Ziggy.
6. Bernstein walked to the podium.
7. We looked inside the submarine.
8. Everyone except Jan was there.
9. Hernando enjoys skiing during the winter.
10. The indentation below the nose is called the Philtrum.
11. Shelley entered her paintings in the contest.
12. The lemmings jumped into the sea.
13. Owls see best in the dark.
Exercise B For each of the following sentences, underline the preposition once and the object of the preposition twice.
Example: 1. Spike Lee is the director of the film.
1. Spike Lee was born in Georgia.
2. He studied at a New York university.
3. The video store near my house carries his films.
4. Lee appears in some films.
5. His father wrote the music for this movie.
6. One of Lee’s film tells about Malcolm X.
7. The director wore a hat with a large X on the front.
8. I recently heard Lee speak on a radio program.
9. He talked about a film he just finished.
10. The interviewer played several clips from the film.