Prepositions
Prepositional phrases are groups of words that act as adverbs or adjectives in a sentence. They NEVER contain the subject of a sentence or a verb.
These phrases begin with a preposition; they sometimes have adjectives in the middle; they end with a noun.
Instead of using the old way of having students memorize forty or fifty common prepositions, examine the following phrases and see if you can pick out things they have in common.
Around the cornerby the bridgethrough the woodsover the hill
By the seain the houseinto the nightinside the barn
Up the creekwithout a paddlein disgustfor the horde!
Beyond the canyonby the barnwith Maryto John
Up the smog-covered, extremely steep, rocky hill
Take a look at the prepositional phrases below and determine their function: adjective or adverb.
1)All right, stop. Collaborate and listen. Ice is back [with my brand-new invention].
2)Something grabs hold [of me] tightly. It flows [like a heartbeat] daily and nightly.
3)Will it ever stop? I don’t know. Turn off the lights, and I’ll glow.
4)[To the extreme], I rock a mic [like a vandal].
5)Light up the stage, and watch me jump [like a candle].
Q) In numbers 3 and 5, one finds the words “off the light” and “up the stage,” respectively. Why are these constructions, even though they look exactly like a prepositional phrase, not marked as such?
Infinitive phrases vs. prepositional phrases—what’s the difference?
Look at the following sentences. Some of the phrases are prepositional phrases; the others are infinitive phrases, which always begin with “to” and are followed by an action. Unlike prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases can function as nouns as well as adjectives or adverbs. Determine the part of speech each phrase is in the following sentences. The first is done for you. Also, sometimes Infinitive phrases can have prepositional phrases inside them—just putting that out there to increase your confusion
1)John ran to the storenear his house.
Prepositional phrase (adverb) describing where John ran (to the store) and a prepositional phrase (adjective) describing which store John ran to (the one near his house).
2)John likes to run through the flowery fields and meadows.
3)To run is the beauty of life!
4)Captain Kirk wants to boldly go where no man has gone before.
5)Captain Kirk also likes to boldly split his infinitives!
Practice!
1) Put a box around all prepositional and infinitive phrases
2) Then, identify the part of speech the phrase belongs to: adjective, adverb, or noun (remember, only infinitive phrases can be nouns),
1) Little Bobby wants the red ball in the toy chestby the desk.
2) To kick-start teen week,Lilly sang the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium and CamdenPark.
3) Joey shot the deer with a rifle; he skinned it with a knife.
4) Sandy caught the fish with a fishing pole and skinned it with a knife.
5) Melissa decided to run to the store for her mother to get eggs, milk, and cheese.
6) Captain Kirk wanted to boldly go where no one has gone before.
7) Jackie quickly ate the hotdog from one end to the other—he was really hungry.
8) Amy Tan is one of my favorite authors; she wrote “Mother Tongue” and “The Joy Luck Club.”
9) “Self Reliance,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, remains my all-time favorite non-fiction piece.
10) Sally, the girl next to me, shines like a star on a clear night.
11) Today, Allie wore a long, pink dress with a matching pair of really fabulous shoes.
12) Shoes—those things on your feet—are sometimes comfortable, sometimes not.
13) Dianna hurled the ball through the trees, over the hill, and into the neighbor’s cow pasture.
14) Sparky peed on the carpet in the den; mother was very upset.
15) Eureka! The scientist bolted across the room to tell his assistant the good news.