What word follows a preposition

Main Prepositional Phrase Takeaways:

• Prepositional phrases help show the relationships between the nouns, pronouns, and other supporting words in a sentence.
• Prepositional phrases contain a preposition, an object, and sometimes one or more modifiers.
• There are two types of prepositional phrases: adverbial and adjectival.
• “Before I leave,” is an example of an adverbial prepositional phrase.
• “The sandwich on the table” is an example of an adjectival prepositional phrase.
• Simple prepositions are just one word.
• Complex prepositions contain two or more words.
• Some words can be both adverbs and prepositions. Prepositions always relate to an object.

Prepositional phrases give your content power. Instead of simple, drab sentences that lack color, you can create an entire world of detail. Here’s a look at prepositional phrases, how they work, and the best way to use them.

What Is a Preposition?

Before we start discussing prepositional phrases, let’s first define what a preposition is. Prepositions are words that show the relationships between words in sentences. They usually come before nouns, pronouns, gerunds, or clauses to show place, location, time, and direction or introduce an object in a sentence. For example:

On, near, over, since, and under are all prepositions. These words allow readers to visualize where an object is located or when something happened. If you want to know more about prepositions, feel free to check our article 5 Types of Prepositions: An Easy Guide. Now, moving on to our main topic, what is a prepositional phrase?

What Is a Prepositional Phrase?

A prepositional phrase is a group of words composed of a preposition, an object (noun or pronoun), and the word that modifies the object. Prepositional phrases function as information-givers in a sentence. Let’s take this sentence as an example: “With a sharp knife in hand, the man freed the dog from its leash.” “With” is the preposition, “knife” is the object, and “sharp” is the word that modifies the object. Together as a prepositional phrase, it tells the readers what the man used to free the dog off its leash.

In most cases, writers use a prepositional phrase to modify a verb or a noun.

For example, why say “you went out” when you can say that “you went out to an incredible party?”

Then, you have the option to add a modifier.

“A bit” modifies or further describes the time of departure.

How Do You Identify a Prepositional Phrase?

A prepositional phrase starts with a preposition and ends with an object, which could be a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause. The object at the end of the prepositional phrase is referred to as the “object of the preposition.” For you to easily identify a prepositional phrase, you need to know the format or pattern it follows in a sentence. There are two ways to write a prepositional phrase, as illustrated below:

Here are some examples of prepositional phrases following the preposition + modifier + object format:

Now, the following are examples of prepositional phrases written in the preposition + object format:

If you can spot any of these two patterns, you’ll be able to identify prepositional phrases easily in any sentence.

What Is an Example Of a Prepositional Phrase?

Here are some examples of prepositional phrases in action. We’ll give you a sentence, identify the prepositional phrase, and explain how it works.

Here, we’re demonstrating the connection between the rainbow and where the Wicked Witch lives.

How are the couch and magazine related? One fell behind the other!

Why did Eliza jump? “For joy!”

“By the elevator” indicates where the room is.

Types Of Prepositional Phrases

There are two types of prepositional phrases, depending on the modifier describing the object: adverbial and adjectival. Adverbial prepositional phrases function as adverbs and answer questions like where, when, how, and why. Adjectival prepositional phrases act as adjectives and answer one of these two questions: What kind of?Which one?

In the succeeding sections, we’ll discuss the major differences and effective usage of these two types of prepositional phrases.

What Is an Adverbial PrepositionalPhrase Example?

Adverbial clauses get their name from the fact that they function as adverbs.

For example, we use adverbial prepositional phrases to show timing or cause and effect. They might tell you when or where something happened. They might also detail how something happened or to what extent.

Adverbial Prepositional Phrases contain a preposition. But, the entire phrase functions as an adverb. This is because the phrase shows when, how, or why something happened.

In this example, “because I went to the store early” is an adverbial clause. This is because it demonstrates how the action in the second part of the sentence came to be.

“Before it sold out” is also an adverbial phrase because it described when that action took place.

Here, “Since Marika left her wallet at home” demonstrates what caused her to have to borrow money.

What Is an Adjectival Prepositional Phrase Example?

On the other hand, an adjective phrase modifies the noun or pronoun that comes immediately before it.

Adjectival Prepositional Phrases contain a preposition. But, the entire phrase functions as an adjective. This is because the complete phrase describes the object it follows.

“On the island” describes the man. The object of the prepositional phrase is the island. What’s more, the phrase itself indicates how the island and the man are connected.

In this case, the pantry is the object, and the prepositional phrase is describing the link between the cake and its location.

Prepositions That Begin Prepositional Phrases

Here are some examples of common prepositions that you often see at the start of prepositional phrases. Jump over to our types of prepositions guide to explore a full list of common, simple and complex prepositions.

There are also some multi-word prepositions. These contain two or more words that function together to create a complex preposition.

• According to
• In spite of
• Along with
• On account of

Can You Begin a Sentence With a Prepositional Phrase?

The quick answer to this question is YES. You can begin a sentence with a prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrases appearing at the beginning of sentences are called introductory prepositional phrases. Besides giving additional information, introductory prepositional phrases also help provide a sense of flow to any written work. They make the text less choppy and pleasurable to read. Read the following paragraph:

The ones underlined in the paragraph above are introductory prepositional phrases. Notice how they provide extra information and help with the flow of the sentences? Now, you also need to pay attention to the placement of your comma when using introductory prepositional phrases.

Comma After a Prepositional Phrase

As a general rule, you can choose to use a comma after a short introductory prepositional phrase or forego using one. By “short,” we mean prepositional phrases that are no longer than four words. Prepositional phrases longer than four words automatically get a comma after them. For example:

Is It a Preposition or an Adverb?

Some words can function as prepositions and as adverbs. You can easily figure out whether a word is acting as a preposition or an adverb by looking for the object.

In the first sentence, “up” doesn’t refer to anything. There is not object. Therefore, “up” is acting as an adverb here.

However, in the second example, “up” does refer to an object. For example, “up” is followed by a noun (the hill). As a result, it’s a preposition in this case.

You can confirm that “up” is a preposition here by asking and answering this question: Where did she run? She ran up the hill!

Here’s another one:

In the first example, all we know is that Clark walked across something. We don’t know what that something is, because there is no object. Consequently, “across” is an adverb here.

In the second example, we find out that Clark walked across a courtyard. Since “courtyard” is the object, and across becomes a preposition.

Quick Prepositional Phrase Grammar Quiz

Read More: When to Use Comma Before Such As: the Definitive Guide

Struggling with prepositions? These small words can be one of the trickiest parts of speech to understand. However, looking at examples often makes things clearer, which is why we’ve compiled a list of 49 common preposition examples for you. After recapping what prepositions are, we dive into our list of prepositions, each of which includes a sample sentence. Then we wrap up by giving tips on how to identify different types of prepositions.

What Is a Preposition?

Before we go over our list of prepositions, let’s review the preposition definition. A preposition is a word that describes the relationship between a word/phrase before it and a word/phrase that follows it. For example, in the sentence, «The truck drove over the river.» the preposition is «over» and it explains the relationship between «truck» and «river.» Where was the truck in relation to the river? It was over it. By switching the preposition, we can get sentences with slightly different meanings, such as «The truck drove near the river» or «The truck drove around the river.»

The word that follows the preposition, either a noun or a pronoun, is called the object of the preposition. Together the preposition and the object of the preposition make up the prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase can function either as an adjective or an adverb, and when a preposition occurs in a sentence, it will always be part of a prepositional phrase. In the first example sentence above, «The truck drove over the river,» «over» is the preposition, «the river» is the object of the preposition, and «over the river» is the prepositional phrase.

Preposition List: 49 Examples

Below is a list of 49 common prepositions, each with a sample sentence so you can see how the preposition is used.

Tips for Identifying Prepositions

Still not entirely sure about prepositions? Here are three tips for identifying them.

#1: They’re Usually Short Words

Prepositions are typically short words, and the majority of the most common prepositions are one syllable: at, by, of, with, up, on, off, down, from, to, in, out, etc. While there are some longer prepositions such as «concerning,» «including,» and «following,» a good first trick to use when searching for prepositions is to look for a short word.

#2: They’re Never Followed by a Verb

A preposition is followed by the object of the preposition, which is either a noun or a pronoun (sometimes with an article/adjective in front of it), never a verb. Any word that is immediately followed by a verb cannot be a preposition.

Note: sometimes you may see a word that looks like a verb, but it’s actually a gerund, a verb that acts like a noun. Look at this sentence: I finished the book before falling asleep.

Hopefully you can identify «before» as the preposition, but isn’t «falling» a verb? Not in this example. Here, «falling asleep» is a noun (You finished the book before what? Before falling asleep.) specifically a gerund. The verb in this sentence is «finished.» So it still follows the rule that prepositions are never followed by a verb. You can learn more about gerunds in this guide to verb tenses and forms.

#3: They Are Always Part of a Prepositional Phrase

If you look at the list of prepositions above, be aware that, although the words in the list are often prepositions, they are not always prepositions. For example, sometimes they’re adverbs, and in those cases, they’re not followed by an object of the preposition. Because a preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase, it’s always immediately followed by the object of the preposition. Compare these two sentences:

«My little brother climbed up the fence.»

«Lift the box up.»

In the first sentence, «up» is used as a preposition, which you can tell because it’s followed by the object of the preposition «the fence» creating the prepositional phrase «up the fence.» In the second sentence, «up» isn’t part of any prepositional phrase, and because of this, we know it can’t be a preposition. Instead, it’s an adverb, modifying the verb «lift.»

If you’re unsure if a word from this list is being used as a preposition, look for a prepositional phrase. If the word you’re struggling over begins a prepositional phrase, then it’s a preposition. If it’s not part of a prepositional phrase, then it’s a different part of speech.

Summary: Preposition Examples

Prepositions are small words that can be difficult at times to understand and identify. By looking at the preposition examples and preposition list above, you can get a better idea of what preposition words are and how they look in a sentence. Common prepositions are at, by, for, on, of, off, to, and with.

Remember, all prepositions are part of a prepositional phrase, they’re never followed by a verb, and prepositions are usually short words.

What’s Next?

Want to learn more about prepositions? Check out our in-depth guides to prepositions and prepositional phrases.

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«Preposition» redirects here. Not to be confused with proposition.

Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions),^[1] are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (in, under, towards, before) or mark various semantic roles (of, for).^[2]

A preposition or postposition typically combines with a noun phrase, this being called its complement, or sometimes object. A preposition comes before its complement; a postposition comes after its complement. English generally has prepositions rather than postpositions – words such as in, under and of precede their objects, such as in England, under the table, of Jane – although there are a few exceptions including «ago» and «notwithstanding», as in «three days ago» and «financial limitations notwithstanding». Some languages that use a different word order have postpositions instead, or have both types. The phrase formed by a preposition or postposition together with its complement is called a prepositional phrase (or postpositional phrase, adpositional phrase, etc.) – such phrases usually play an adverbial role in a sentence.

A less common type of adposition is the circumposition, which consists of two parts that appear on each side of the complement. Other terms sometimes used for particular types of adposition include ambiposition, inposition and interposition. Some linguists use the word preposition in place of adposition regardless of the applicable word order.^[1]

Terminology[edit]

The word preposition comes from Latin: prae- prefix (pre- prefix) («before») and Latin: ponere («to put»). This refers to the situation in Latin and Greek (and in English), where such words are placed before their complement (except sometimes in Ancient Greek), and are hence «pre-positioned».

In some languages, including Sindhi, Hindustani, Turkish, Hungarian, Korean, and Japanese, the same kinds of words typically come after their complement. To indicate this, they are called postpositions (using the prefix post-, from Latin post meaning «behind, after»). There are also some cases where the function is performed by two parts coming before and after the complement; this is called a circumposition (from Latin circum- prefix «around»).

In some languages, for example Finnish, some adpositions can be used as both prepositions and postpositions.

Prepositions, postpositions and circumpositions are collectively known as adpositions (using the Latin prefix ad-, meaning «to»). However, some linguists prefer to use the well-known and longer established term preposition in place of adposition, irrespective of position relative to the complement.^[1]

Grammatical properties[edit]

An adposition typically combines with exactly one complement, most often a noun phrase (or, in a different analysis, a determiner phrase). In English, this is generally a noun (or something functioning as a noun, e.g., a gerund), together with its specifier and modifiers such as articles, adjectives, etc. The complement is sometimes called the object of the adposition. The resulting phrase, formed by the adposition together with its complement, is called an adpositional phrase or prepositional phrase (PP) (or for specificity, a postpositional or circumpositional phrase).

An adposition establishes a grammatical relationship that links its complement to another word or phrase in the context. It also generally establishes a semantic relationship, which may be spatial (in, on, under, …), temporal (after, during, …), or of some other type (of, for, via, …). The World Atlas of Language Structures treats a word as an adposition if it takes a noun phrase as a complement and indicates the grammatical or semantic relationship of that phrase to the verb in the containing clause.^[3]

Some examples of the use of English prepositions are given below. In each case, the prepositional phrase appears in italics, the preposition within it appears in bold, and the preposition’s complement is underlined. As demonstrated in some of the examples, more than one prepositional phrase may act as an adjunct to the same word.

• As an adjunct to a noun:
  • the weather in March
  • cheese from France with live bacteria
• As a predicative expression (complement of a copula)
  • The key is under the stone.
• As an adjunct to a verb:
  • sleep throughout the winter
  • danced atop the tables for hours
  • dispense with the formalities (see Semantic functions, below)
• As an adjunct to an adjective:
  • happy for them
  • sick until recently

In the last of these examples the complement has the form of an adverb, which has been nominalised to serve as a noun phrase; see Different forms of complement, below. Prepositional phrases themselves are sometimes nominalized:

• In the cellar was chosen as the best place to store the wine.

An adposition may determine the grammatical case of its complement. In English, the complements of prepositions take the objective case where available (from him, not *from he). In Koine Greek, for example, certain prepositions always take their objects in a certain case (e.g., ἐν always takes its object in the dative), while other prepositions may take their object in one of two or more cases, depending on the meaning of the preposition (e.g., διά takes its object in the genitive or in the accusative, depending on the meaning). Some languages have cases that are used exclusively after prepositions (prepositional case), or special forms of pronouns for use after prepositions (prepositional pronoun).

The functions of adpositions overlap with those of case markings (for example, the meaning of the English preposition of is expressed in many languages by a genitive case ending), but adpositions are classed as syntactic elements, while case markings are morphological.

Adpositions themselves are usually non-inflecting («invariant»): they do not have paradigms of form (such as tense, case, gender, etc.) the same way that verbs, adjectives, and nouns can. There are exceptions, though, such as prepositions that have fused with a pronominal object to form inflected prepositions.

The following properties are characteristic of most adpositional systems:

• Adpositions are among the most frequently occurring words in languages that have them. For example, one frequency ranking for English word forms^[4] begins as follows (prepositions in bold):

the, of, and, to, a, in, that, it, is, was, I, for, on, you, …

• The most common adpositions are single, monomorphemic words. According to the ranking cited above, for example, the most common English prepositions are on, in, to, by, for, with, at, of, from, as, all of which are single-syllable words and cannot be broken down into smaller units of meaning.
• Adpositions form a closed class of lexical items and cannot be productively derived from words of other categories.

Classification of adpositions[edit]

As noted above, adpositions are referred to by various terms, depending on their position relative to the complement.

While the term preposition is sometimes used to denote any adposition, in its stricter meaning it refers only to one which precedes its complement. Examples of this, from English, have been given above; similar examples can be found in many European and other languages, for example:

• German: mit einer Frau («with a woman»)
• French: sur la table («on the table»)
• Polish: na stole («on the table»)
• Russian: у меня («in the possession of me» [I have])
• Khmer: លើក្តារខៀន [ləː kdaːkʰiən] («on (the) blackboard»)
• Tigrinya: አብ ልዕሊ ጣውላ [abː lɨʕli tʼawla] («at/on top table»); አብ ትሕቲ ጣውላ [abː tɨħti tʼawla] («at/on under table»)

In certain grammatical constructions, the complement of a preposition may be absent or may be moved from its position directly following the preposition. This may be referred to as preposition stranding (see also below), as in «Whom did you go with?» and «There’s only one thing worse than being talked about.» There are also some (mainly colloquial) expressions in which a preposition’s complement may be omitted, such as «I’m going to the park. Do you want to come with [me]?», and the French Il fait trop froid, je ne suis pas habillée pour («It’s too cold, I’m not dressed for [the situation].»)
The bolded words in these examples are generally still considered prepositions because when they form a phrase with a complement (in more ordinary constructions) they must appear first.

A postposition follows its complement to form a postpositional phrase. Examples include:

• Latin: mecum («with me», literally «me with«)
• Turkish: benimle or benim ile («with me», literally «my with«)
• Chinese: 桌子上 zhuōzi shàng (lit. «table on«); this is a nominal form which usually requires an additional preposition to form an adverbial phrase (see Chinese locative phrases)
• English: ten kilometers away, ten months ago (both could be considered adverbs)

Some adpositions can appear either before or after their complement:

• English: the evidence notwithstanding OR notwithstanding the evidence
• German: meiner Meinung nach OR nach meiner Meinung («in my opinion»)
• German: die Straße entlang OR entlang der Straße («along the road»; here a different case is used when entlang precedes the noun)

An adposition like the above, which can be either a preposition or a postposition, can be called an ambiposition.^[5] However, ambiposition may also be used to refer to a circumposition (see below),^[6] or to a word that appears to function as a preposition and postposition simultaneously, as in the Vedic Sanskrit construction (noun-1) ā (noun-2), meaning «from (noun-1) to (noun-2)».^[7]

Whether a language has primarily prepositions or postpositions is seen as an aspect of its typological classification, and tends to correlate with other properties related to head directionality. Since an adposition is regarded as the head of its phrase, prepositional phrases are head-initial (or right-branching), while postpositional phrases are head-final (or left-branching). There is a tendency for languages that feature postpositions also to have other head-final features, such as verbs that follow their objects; and for languages that feature prepositions to have other head-initial features, such as verbs that precede their objects. This is only a tendency, however; an example of a language that behaves differently is Latin, which employs mostly prepositions, even though it typically places verbs after their objects.

A circumposition consists of two or more parts, positioned on both sides of the complement. Circumpositions are very common in Pashto and Kurdish. The following are examples from Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji):

• bi … re («with»)
• di … de («in», for things, not places)
• di … re («via, through»)
• ji … re («for»)
• ji … ve («since»)

Various constructions in other languages might also be analyzed as circumpositional, for example:

• English: from now on
• Dutch: naar het einde toe («towards the end», lit. «to the end to»)
• Chinese: 从冰箱里 cóng bīngxiāng lǐ («from the inside of the refrigerator», lit. «from refrigerator inside»)
• French: à un détail près («except for one detail», lit. «at one detail near»)
• Swedish: för tre timmar sedan («three hours ago», lit. «for three hours since»)
• German: aus dem Zimmer heraus («out from the room», lit. «from the room out»)
• Tigrinya: ካብ ሕጂ ‘ንደሓር («from now on», lit. «from now to later»)

Most such phrases, however, can be analyzed as having a different hierarchical structure (such as a prepositional phrase modifying a following adverb). The Chinese example could be analyzed as a prepositional phrase headed by cóng («from»), taking the locative noun phrase bīngxīang lǐ («refrigerator inside») as its complement.

An inposition is a rare type of adposition that appears between parts of a complex complement. For example, in the native Californian Timbisha language, the phrase «from a mean cold» can be translated using the word order «cold from mean»—the inposition follows the noun but precedes any following modifiers that form part of the same noun phrase.^[8] The Latin word cum is also commonly used as an inposition, as in the phrase summa cum laude, meaning «with highest praise», lit. «highest with praise».

The term interposition has been used^[9] for adpositions in structures such as word for word, French coup sur coup («one after another, repeatedly»), and Russian друг с другом («one with the other»). This is not a case of an adposition appearing inside its complement, as the two nouns do not form a single phrase (there is no phrase *word word, for example); such uses have more of a coordinating character.

Stranding[edit]

Preposition stranding is a syntactic construct in which a preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its complement. For example, in the English sentence «What did you sit on?» the preposition on has what as its complement, but what is moved to the start of the sentence, because it is an interrogative word. This sentence is much more common and natural than the equivalent sentence without stranding: «On what did you sit?» Preposition stranding is commonly found in English,^[10] as well as North Germanic languages such as Swedish. Its existence in German is debated. Preposition stranding is also found in some Niger–Congo languages such as Vata and Gbadi, and in some North American varieties of French.

Some prescriptive English grammars teach that prepositions cannot end a sentence, although there is no rule prohibiting that use.^[11][12] Similar rules arose during the rise of classicism, when they were applied to English in imitation of classical languages such as Latin. Otto Jespersen, in his Essentials of English Grammar (first published 1933), commented on this definition-derived rule: «…nor need a preposition (Latin: praepositio) stand before the word it governs (go the fools among (Sh[akespeare]); What are you laughing at?). You might just as well believe that all blackguards are black or that turkeys come from Turkey; many names have either been chosen unfortunately at first or have changed their meanings in course of time.»^[13]

Simple versus complex[edit]

Simple adpositions consist of a single word (on, in, for, towards, etc.). Complex adpositions consist of a group of words that act as one unit. Examples of complex prepositions in English include in spite of, with respect to, except for, by dint of, and next to.

The distinction between simple and complex adpositions is not clear-cut. Many complex adpositions are derived from simple forms (e.g., with + in → within, by + side → beside) through grammaticalisation. This change takes time, and during the transitional stages, the adposition acts in some ways like a single word, and in other ways like a multi-word unit. For example, current German orthographic conventions recognize the indeterminate status of certain prepositions, allowing two spellings: anstelle/an Stelle («instead of»), aufgrund/auf Grund («because of»), mithilfe/mit Hilfe («by means of»), zugunsten/zu Gunsten («in favor of»), zuungunsten/zu Ungunsten («to the disadvantage of»), zulasten/zu Lasten («at the expense of»).^[14]

The distinction between complex adpositions and free combinations of words is not a black and white issue: complex adpositions (in English, «prepositional idioms») can be more fossilized or less fossilized. In English, this applies to a number of structures of the form «preposition + (article) + noun + preposition», such as in front of, for the sake of.^[15] The following characteristics are good indications that a given combination is «frozen» enough to be considered a complex preposition in English:^[16]

• It contains a word that cannot be used in any other context: by dint of, in lieu of.
• The first preposition cannot be replaced: with a view to but not *for/without a view to.
• It is impossible to insert an article, or to use a different article: on account of but not *on an/the account of; for the sake of but not *for a sake of.
• The range of possible adjectives is very limited: in great favor of, but not *in helpful favor of.
• The grammatical number of the noun cannot be changed: by virtue of but not *by virtues of.
• It is impossible to use a possessive determiner: in spite of him, not *in his spite.

Marginal prepositions[edit]

Marginal prepositions are prepositions that have affinities with other word classes, most notably verbs.^[17] Marginal prepositions behave like prepositions but derive from other parts of speech. Some marginal prepositions in English include barring, concerning, considering, excluding, failing, following, including, notwithstanding, regarding, and respecting.

Proper versus improper[edit]

In descriptions of some languages, prepositions are divided into proper (or essential) and improper (or accidental). A preposition is called improper if it is some other part of speech being used in the same way as a preposition. Examples of simple and complex prepositions that have been so classified include prima di («before») and davanti (a) («in front of») in Italian,^[18] and ergo («on account of») and causa («for the sake of») in Latin.^[19] In reference to Ancient Greek, however, an improper preposition is one that cannot also serve as a prefix to a verb.^[20]

Different forms of complement[edit]

As noted above, adpositions typically have noun phrases as complements. This can include nominal clauses and certain types of non-finite verb phrase:

• We can’t agree on whether to have children or not (complement is a nominal clause)
• Let’s think about solving this problem (complement is a gerund phrase)
• pour encourager les autres (French: «to encourage the others», complement is an infinitive phrase)

The word to when it precedes the infinitive in English is not a preposition, but rather is a grammatical particle outside of any main word class.

In other cases, the complement may have the form of an adjective or adjective phrase, or an adverbial. This may be regarded as a complement representing a different syntactic category, or simply as an atypical form of noun phrase (see nominalization).

• The scene went from blindingly bright to pitch black (complements are adjective phrases)
• I worked there until recently (complement is an adverb)
• Come out from under the bed (complement is an adverbial)

In the last example, the complement of the preposition from is in fact another prepositional phrase. The resulting sequence of two prepositions (from under) may be regarded as a complex preposition; in some languages, such a sequence may be represented by a single word, as Russian из-под iz-pod («from under»).

Some adpositions appear to combine with two complements:

• With Sammy president, we can all come out of hiding again.
• For Sammy to become president, they’d have to seriously modify the Constitution.

It is more commonly assumed, however, that Sammy and the following predicate forms a «small clause», which then becomes the single complement of the preposition. (In the first example, a word such as as may be considered to have been elided, which, if present, would clarify the grammatical relationship.)

Semantic functions[edit]

Adpositions can be used to express a wide range of semantic relations between their complement and the rest of the context. The relations expressed may be spatial (denoting location or direction), temporal (denoting position in time), or relations expressing comparison, content, agent, instrument, means, manner, cause, purpose, reference, etc.

Most common adpositions are highly polysemous (they have various different meanings). In many cases a primary, spatial meaning becomes extended to non-spatial uses by metaphorical or other processes. Because of the variety of meanings, a single adposition often has many possible equivalents in another language, depending on the exact context in which it is used; this can cause significant difficulties in foreign language learning. Usage can also vary between dialects of the same language (for example, American English has on the weekend, where British English uses at the weekend).

In some contexts (as in the case of some phrasal verbs) the choice of adposition may be determined by another element in the construction or be fixed by the construction as a whole. Here the adposition may have little independent semantic content of its own, and there may be no clear reason why the particular adposition is used rather than another. Examples of such expressions are:

• English: dispense with, listen to, insist on, proud of, good at
• Russian: otvechat’ na vopros («answer the question», literally «answer on the question»), obvinenie v obmane («accusation of [literally: in] fraud»)
• Spanish: soñar con ganar el título («dream about [lit. with] winning the title»), consistir en dos grupos («consist of [lit. in] two groups»)

Prepositions sometimes mark roles that may be considered largely grammatical:

• possession (in a broad sense) – the pen of my aunt (sometimes marked by genitive or possessive forms)
• the agent in passive constructions – killed by a lone gunman
• the recipient of a transfer – give it to him (sometimes marked by a dative or an indirect object)

Spatial meanings of adpositions may be either directional or static. A directional meaning usually involves motion in a particular direction («Kay went to the store»), the direction in which something leads or points («A path into the woods»), or the extent of something («The fog stretched from London to Paris»). A static meaning indicates only a location («at the store», «behind the chair», «on the moon»). Some prepositions can have both uses: «he sat in the water» (static); «he jumped in the water» (probably directional). In some languages, the case of the complement varies depending on the meaning, as with several prepositions in German, such as in:

• in seinem Zimmer («in his room», static meaning, takes the dative)
• in sein Zimmer («into his room», directional meaning, takes the accusative)

In English and many other languages, prepositional phrases with static meaning are commonly used as predicative expressions after a copula («Bob is at the store»); this may happen with some directional prepositions as well («Bob is from Australia»), but this is less common. Directional prepositional phrases combine mostly with verbs that indicate movement («Jay is going into her bedroom», but not *»Jay is lying down into her bedroom»).

Directional meanings can be further divided into telic and atelic. Telic prepositional phrases imply movement all the way to the endpoint («she ran to the fence»), while atelic ones do not («she ran towards the fence»).^[21]

Static meanings can be divided into projective and non-projective, where projective meanings are those whose understanding requires knowledge of the perspective or point of view. For example, the meaning of «behind the rock» is likely to depend on the position of the speaker (projective), whereas the meaning of «on the desk» is not (non-projective). Sometimes the interpretation is ambiguous, as in «behind the house», which may mean either at the natural back of the house, or on the opposite side of the house from the speaker.^[22]

Overlaps with other categories[edit]

Adverbs and particles[edit]

There are often similarities in form between adpositions and adverbs. Some adverbs are derived from the fusion of a preposition and its complement (such as downstairs, from down (the) stairs, and underground, from under (the) ground). Some words can function both as adverbs and as prepositions, such as inside, aboard, underneath (for instance, one can say «go inside», with adverbial use, or «go inside the house», with prepositional use). Such cases are analogous to verbs that can be used either transitively or intransitively, and the adverbial forms might therefore be analyzed as «intransitive prepositions». This analysis^[23] could also be extended to other adverbs, such as here (this place), there (that place), afterwards, etc., even though these never take complements.

Many English phrasal verbs contain particles that are used adverbially, even though they mostly have the form of a preposition (such words may be called prepositional adverbs). Examples are on in carry on, get on, etc., and over in take over, fall over, and so on. The equivalents in Dutch and German are separable prefixes, which also often have the same form as prepositions: for example, Dutch aanbieden and German anbieten (both meaning «to offer») contain the separable prefix aan/an, which is also a preposition meaning «on» or «to».

Conjunctions[edit]

Some words can be used both as adpositions and as subordinating conjunctions:

• (preposition) before/after/since the end of the summer
• (conjunction) before/after/since the summer ended
• (preposition) It looks like another rainy day
• (conjunction) It looks like it’s going to rain again today

It would be possible to analyze such conjunctions (or even other subordinating conjunctions) as prepositions that take an entire clause as a complement.

Verbs[edit]

In some languages, including a number of Chinese varieties, many of the words that serve as prepositions can also be used as verbs. For instance, in Standard Chinese, 到 dào can be used in either a prepositional or a verbal sense:

• 我到北京去 wǒ dào Běijīng qù («I go to Beijing»; qù, meaning «to go», is the main verb, dào is prepositional meaning «to»)
• 我到了 wǒ dào le («I have arrived»; dào is the main verb, meaning «to arrive»)

Because of this overlap, and the fact that a sequence of prepositional phrase and verb phrase often resembles a serial verb construction, Chinese prepositions (and those of other languages with similar grammatical structures) are often referred to as coverbs.

As noted in previous sections, Chinese can also be said to have postpositions, although these can be analyzed as nominal (noun) elements. For more information, see the article on Chinese grammar, particularly the sections on coverbs and locative phrases.

Case affixes[edit]

Some grammatical case markings have a similar function to adpositions; a case affix in one language may be equivalent in meaning to a preposition or postposition in another. For example, in English the agent of a passive construction is marked by the preposition by, while in Russian it is marked by use of the instrumental case. Sometimes such equivalences exist within a single language; for example, the genitive case in German is often interchangeable with a phrase using the preposition von (just as in English, the preposition of is often interchangeable with the possessive suffix ‘s).

Adpositions combine syntactically with their complement, whereas case markings combine with a noun morphologically. In some instances it may not be clear which applies; the following are some possible means of making such a distinction:

• Two adpositions can usually be joined with a coordinating conjunction and share a single complement (of and for the people), whereas this is generally not possible with case affixes;
• One adposition can usually combine with two coordinated complements (of the city and the world), whereas a case affix would need to be repeated with each noun (Latin urbis et orbis, not *urb- et orbis);
• Case markings combine primarily with nouns, whereas adpositions can combine with (nominalized) phrases of different categories;
• A case marking usually appears directly on the noun, but an adposition can be separated from the noun by other words;
• Within the noun phrase, determiners and adjectives may agree with the noun in case (case spreading), but an adposition only appears once;
• A language can have hundreds of adpositions (including complex adpositions), but no language has that many distinct morphological cases.

Even so, a clear distinction cannot always be made. For example, the post-nominal elements in Japanese and Korean are sometimes called case particles and sometimes postpositions. Sometimes they are analysed as two different groups because they have different characteristics (e.g., the ability to combine with focus particles), but in such analysis, it is unclear which words should fall into which group.

Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian have both extensive case-marking and postpositions, but there is evidence to help distinguish the two:

• Turkish: (case) sinemaya (cinema-dative, «to the cinema») vs. (postposition) sinema için («for the cinema»)
• Finnish: (case) talossa (house-inessive, «in the house») vs. (postposition) «talon edessä (house-genitive in front, «in front of the house»)
• Hungarian: (case) tetőn (roof-superessive, «on the roof») vs. (postposition) «tető alatt («under the roof»)

In these examples, the case markings form a word with their hosts (as shown by vowel harmony, other word-internal effects and agreement of adjectives in Finnish), while the postpositions are independent words. As is seen in the last example, adpositions are often used in conjunction with case affixes – in languages that have case, a given adposition usually takes a complement in a particular case, and sometimes (as has been seen above) the choice of case helps specify the meaning of the adposition.

See also[edit]

• List of English prepositions
• Old English prepositions
• Spanish prepositions
• Japanese particles
• Relational noun

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Haspelmath, Martin. (2003) «Adpositions». International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513977-1.
• Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. (2002) The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43146-8.
• Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Reynolds, Brett (2022). A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-08574-8.
• Koopman, Hilda. (2000) «Prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions, and particles». In The Syntax of Specifiers and Heads, pp. 204–260. London: Routledge.
• Libert, Alan R. (2006) Ambipositions. LINCOM studies in language typology (No. 13). LINCOM. ISBN 3-89586-747-0.
• Maling, Joan. (1983) «Transitive adjectives: A case of categorial reanalysis». In F. Heny and B. Richards (eds), Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles, Vol. 1, pp. 253–289. Dordrecht: Reidel.
• Melis, Ludo. (2003) La préposition en français. Gap: Ophrys.
• Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2005) «Phrasal Prepositions in a Civil Tone.» Language Log. Accessed 9 September 2007.
• Quirk, Randolph, and Joan Mulholland. (1964) «Complex Prepositions and Related Sequences». English Studies, suppl. to vol. 45, pp. 64–73.
• Rauh, Gisa. (1991) Approaches to Prepositions. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
• Reindl, Donald F. (2001) «Areal Effects on the Preservation and Genesis of Slavic Postpositions». In Lj. Šarić and D. F. Reindl On Prepositions (= Studia Slavica Oldenburgensia 8), pp. 85–100. Oldenburg: Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universitat Oldenburg.

External links[edit]

• Merriam Webster Editor’s take on whether it is ok to end a sentence with a Preposition
• Some prepositions at Purdue Online Writing Lab

Types of Prepositions

There are several types of prepositions such as: Simple Prepositions, Double Prepositions, Compound Prepositions, Phrasal prepositions, Participle Prepositions, Disguised preposition, and Detached Prepositions.

1. Simple Prepositions: 

Simple prepositions are used to denote a relation between nouns or pronouns. These can even be used to join different parts of sentences and clauses. Simple prepositions are one word prepositions. These are also called Single Prepositions. Common words used that come under the category of Simple Prepositions are as follows:

In, out, on, up, at, for, from, by, of, off, through, till, etc.

Examples of Simple Prepositions in sentences:

Keep your phones in your pockets.

Staring at people is not considered a good gesture.

In the above two examples, both prepositions consist of one simple word and hence are Single or Simple Prepositions.

2. Double Prepositions: 

Double Prepositions are made by putting together two Single Prepositions. That is why they are called Double Prepositions. Common words used as Double Prepositions are as follows:

Onto, into, throughout, up till, up to, within, without, upon, etc.

Examples of Double Prepositions in sentences:

Complete this essay within two hours.

I am going to turn this scrap into a masterpiece.

In the first example, the Preposition within is made by combining two Single Prepositions with and in.

In the second example, the Preposition into is formed by putting together two Simple Prepositions in and two. These are hence Double Prepositions.

3. Compound Prepositions: 

Compound Prepositions are those types of preposition that are usually formed by prefixing a preposition to nouns, adjectives or adverbs.  They are different from double prepositions because they are not formed by two single prepositions. Common words, which come under the category of compound prepositions, are stated below:

Above, about, across, along, before, behind, beside, inside, outside, etc.

Examples of preposition in sentences:

He was going about his business.

The person beside Ali is my brother.

In the first example, the prefix ‘a’ is added to a root word ‘bout’ to make a preposition. In the second example, the prefix be is added to the root word side to make a preposition. Thus, these words are Compound Prepositions.

4. Phrasal Prepositions: 

Phrasal Prepositions are groups of words or phrases that join the noun or pronoun in a sentence, to the remainder of the sentence. These groups of words express a single idea by coming together as a unit. Words that come under the category of Phrasal Prepositions are as follows:

In addition to, by means of, in spite of, according to, owing to, in favour of, etc.

Examples of Phrasal Prepositions in sentences:

He couldn’t pass the test, owing to his lack of knowledge of English Grammar.

She made it to the other side of the world, in spite of all the difficulties.

In the first example, the group of words ‘owing to’ is joining the two sentences with each other and is a phrase. Likewise, the group of words ‘in spite of’ is also a phrase and is working as a preposition. Hence, these are Phrasal Prepositions.

5. Participle Prepositions: 

Participle Prepositions, indicating from their name, are the Present Participle forms of Verbs. These are used without any noun or pronoun attached with them. The words that are distinguished as Participle Prepositions are as follows:

Concerning, considering, barring, notwithstanding, touching, pending, during, etc.

Examples of Participle Prepositions in sentences:

Notwithstanding his efforts, he was still fired from the job.

Touching this matter, I do not have much information.

In above examples, both the verbs notwithstanding and touching are in Present Participle which is apparent from the ‘ing’ at the end of both words. These words are therefore Participle Prepositions.

6. Disguised Prepositions: 

Disguised prepositions are those prepositions which are not used in the sentences directly, but we use them in a disguised way. Their shorter forms are used. The examples of Disguised Prepositions are ‘a’ and ‘o’.

Disguised preposition ‘a’ is shortened form of the preposition ‘on’ and similarly ‘o’ is the shortened form of the preposition ‘of’.

Examples of disguised prepositions in sentences:

The ceremony will be held at 5 o’ clock.

We all went to a party.

In the first example, instead of saying ‘5 of the clock’, we have used disguised form of the preposition of.

In the second example, instead of saying ‘went on partying’, we have used abbreviation of the preposition on and disguised the preposition as ‘a’. Hence these are Disguised Prepositions.

7. Detached Prepositions: 

A preposition is called a detached preposition when it does not come before its object. It is detached from its object. When the object of a preposition is an interrogative pronoun or a relative pronoun, the preposition comes at the end of the sentence.

Look at the following examples of detached prepositions for further understanding.

She is the woman whom I was talking about.

Here are the books that you asked for.

Which of the houses were you working in?

In the first two of the above examples, we can see that because of relative pronouns whom and that, the prepositions about and for are being detached from their objects.

In the third example, the interrogative pronoun ‘which’ is detaching the preposition ‘in’ from its object.

Hence these are all detached prepositions.

Have you ever thought about the different things that a frog could do to a log? The frog could be on the log, on top of the log, below or under the log, beside the log, between two logs, or any other infinite number of possibilities.

When I was younger, my teacher used the silly image of frogs and logs to help us remember what prepositions are.

While this is a very simply explanation of the different prepositions, it does serve as a remind of what they are for: describing how different parts of a sentence are in relation to each other.

👉 Preposition Definition

A preposition is a word that tells you how words are related in a sentence. It could often follow a verb, but it does not always. The example of the frog and a log can tell you a lot of them, but those are only one of two categories of prepositions.

In fact, there are two types of prepositions: ones that tell about place and ones that tell about time and time order.

Regardless of which preposition you use, you can change the meaning of a sentence. Be careful about saying that you are coming in, coming from, coming after, coming before, or coming at something!

Each of these prepositions, when they come after the right verb, changes the relationship of the two nouns that would complete that sentence.

👉 List of Common Prepositions

Prepositions of Place

• On
• Under
• Below
• From
• In
• Beside
• Next to
• Between
• To
• At
• With
• Behind
• Up over
• Into
• For
• Concerning
• Despite
• Except
• Along
• Against
• Unlike
• Because of
• Beyond

Prepositions of Time

• After
• Before
• Since
• Until
• From
• During
• In
• On
• Beyond
• At

👉 Prepositions Example

Many of these prepositions can be in phrases, both for prepositions of space and time. These are typically known as prepositional phrases. This includes any descriptor of the space or time that something is in.

For example:

• Under the table
• Along the fence
• Beyond the meadow
• Unlike her peers
• Except for Taylor
• After the show
• Since 2017
• During the game
• In October
• On Monday

👉 What is a prepositional phrase?

These prepositional phrases serve to show the reader or listener where or when something happened.

Some phrases that have prepositions actually function as subordinate conjunctions. This means that the words that follow the preposition have both a subject and a verb.

The prepositions that can form these subordinate clauses are after, as, before, since, and until.

For example:

• After she realized she want to eat cake, she decided to stop by the bakery.
• I walked in the door just as my mom was getting ready to head out.
• Since I decided that medicine was not for me, I had been looking for different careers that might be interesting and fit my personality.
• Until the visa process is easier to navigate, I will not travel to those countries.

Note that, if you take away the preposition in each of these subordinate clauses, you end up with a complete sentence. If you add them in, you need to connect the clause to another independent clause that is related in some way.

Prepositional Phrase Examples

👉 Prepositional Phrase BY

👉 Prepositional Phrase FOR

1. I haven’t been abroad for ages. I hope I can go to the seaside for a holiday this year. 
2. I’m not hungry, I ate a lot for breakfast.
3. I know for certain I put my car key in my bag, but I can’t find it. 
4. I don’t want to work here forever. I’ll quit, as soon as I get a better job. 
5. Not everybody likes cats. For example, I prefer dogs. 
6. I don’t go to zoos for fear of huge animals.
7. Don’t be mad, I did it for fun. 
8. We broke up for good. I won’t let him back even if he begs me.
9. He will definitely help you. Take it for granted.
10. For instance, she prefers tea instead of coffee. 
11. I bought you a necklace. Take it with you to the exam for luck. 
12. Being a mother is a job for life.
13. I love this job, but the salary is low. I can’t do it for love. 
14. Could you hold my glass for a moment? I need to find something in my bag. 
15. I can’t believe he fired me. I worked so hard for nothing. 
16. I love this place so much. I can imagine I live here for the rest of my life. 
17. We moved to the seaside for Joe’s sake, because he is suffering from asthma in the city. 
18. Is it for sale? No, I don’t want to sell it.
19. I don’t live here. I came for a visit. 
20. I go for a walk with my dogs every morning. 
21. I haven’t visited her for a while. 
22. I will go for a walk every day from now on.
23. I have a headache from time to time, and I don’t know why. 

👉 Prepositional Phrase IN

👉 Prepositional Phrase OF and more

👉 OF Preposition Examples

We normally use the preposition OF when we want to connect things to one another, for example:

• The highlight of the holiday was the walking tour of the ancient city.
• The new movie was excellent, but some parts of the movie were very violent.
• The pictures of earth taken from space are incredible.

We can also use OF to show an amount, for example:

• Studies show that 7 hours of sleep per night is the recommended amount of sleep an adult requires.
• Dieticians recommend 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
• To pass the driving test a score of 35 out of 40 is required in the theory part of the test.

👉 TO Preposition Examples

The preposition TO is often used when talking about movement. For example:

• Every evening, the children run to their parents when they get home from work.
• The CEO is flying to Hong Kong this week to visit the new office there.
• The letter was sent to the wrong address.

TO is very often used to indicate a time period. For example:

• From January to July there will be training days every second Friday.
• Most employees work from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday.
• The English course is from 10 am to 1 pm every day for three months.

👉 There are about 150 prepositions in English

Most common ones are here

• with
• against
• above
• over
• on/ upon
• around
• across
• to
• to the left
• to the right
• outside
• into
• through
• near
• far
• at
• beside
• under
• below
• behind
• backward
• forward
• away
• out
• among
• between
• in front (of)
• far

👉 Use of AT IN ON in English Grammar (Time)

A preposition is a word that connects a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to some other parts of sentences.

Prepositions can be confusing and difficult for English learners because there is no definite rule or formula for choosing the right preposition!

In the early stages of learning English, you should just try to identify a preposition when you’re reading or listening in English and recognize how it is used.

• to the supermarket
• at the dinner table
• on the sofa
• in an hour
• about myself

A preposition is used to show direction, location, time, or to introduce an object.

Some more examples are listed above!

AT

• at 9 o’clock
• at Christmas
• at noon
• at night
• at the weekend
• at dinner
• at the moment

IN

• in the evening
• in the Christmas holiday
• in the summer
• in 2014
• in August
• in 3 hours

ON

• on Mondays
• on that day
• on June 17th

👉 Difference Between the Prepositions IN and ON!

If my keys are IN my bag, you can’t see them. You have to open my bag first and look inside to see them.

If my bag is ON the table, you can see it- it’s on the surface. You look at the table and see my bag ON the top.

If my husband is IN the house, you can’t see him from outside. He is behind the walls. He may be IN the kitchen.

If he’s ON the roof, he’s fixing our satellite dish. You can see him from the street. You look up and there he is, ON the top.

Cats love sitting ON our roof. They never come IN the house.

When you’ve ironed your shirts, you put them IN the wardrobe. You close the doors and you can’t see the shirts anymore.

I have a box of old photographs that I like to keep ON the wardrobe. You can see this box when you enter my bedroom- it’s ON the top.

IN my wardrobe, there are my clothes. ON the wardrobe there is this box. And some dust.

👉 Prepositions IN / ON / AT with words like Playground / Field / Beach

1. Use ‘IN’ when talking about enclosed places.
So, if it is a playground (with swings and slides) enclosed by a fence:

• We spent all morning IN the playground.

The same goes for field: if it is an enclosed one, you can say IN the field, However,

2. ON the playground and ON the field are both correct

when talking about the SURFACE:

• I found this watch on the playground.

or

when the places are OPEN (not enclosed/defined):

• The kids were running on the playground.

3. AT means something like ‘very near’ or ‘next to’:

• Let’s meet AT the playground.

(You don’t have to go inside, but have to be there, very near, so that I can see you if I look at the playground from a distance)

Regarding the BEACH, because it’s an open area, we never say in the beach. It’s not enclosed, we are on its surface, so the correct form is: ON the beach.

👉 Prepositions Phrases: 14 Nouns plus a Preposition

Nouns are often followed by prepositions in English. They form something similar to a phrase that is used over and over again by native speakers. Here is a sampling of popular nouns followed by a preposition.

1. Credit for

this refers to the person who will get the benefit or the praise for something positive being accomplished.

• I didn’t think it was fair that she got all of the credit for the entire team’s hard work.  

2. Belief in

refers to someone trusting in or having faith that another person,  entity, or organization exist or will do what they say they will do.

• I have a strong belief in the system. Everything will work out the way it is supposed to.

3. Anxiety about

refers to someone being nervous or anxious that something will or won’t happen. When someone has anxiety about something, the situation is making them uncomfortable.

• I have a lot of anxiety about tomorrow’s math test, even though I’ve been studying all week.

4. Addiction to

refers to someone not being able to be without a person, object, or a substance. When someone has an addiction it is usually unhealthy. This is often used to speak about an addiction to alcohol, drugs, food, or some other health issue. While one can have an addiction to something positive, it’s not discussed as often.

• I have an addiction to chocolate, once I start eating one piece, I eat entire bags full every day.

5. Advantage of

refers to someone having a  leg up or benefit over someone else. If someone has an advantage they have something extra to help them succeed. The advantage can be anything including physical appearance, money, or connections.

• He had the advantage of height over all of the other players, considering he was five inches taller than all of them.

6. Talent for

means that someone has the potential to be good at something. Someone who has a talent for something may already be established in that thing, or it may be something that they’ve only tried one time.

• He has a newly discovered talent for playing the piano.

7. Responsibility for/ Responsibility to

refers to someone having a duty or obligation to do something. Someone may be being told that they have an obligation to do something or someone may feel like doing something is their obligation.

• You have to take responsibility for your actions.
• It’s not your responsibility to justify his actions.

8. Regret for

means that someone wished something had not happened, or that they did not do something.

• The man had so much regret for his actions, he knew it would be a long time before he would be forgiven.

9. Reason for

refers to why someone is doing something or why something has  happened. It doesn’t matter if the reason is good or bad, and it doesn’t matter if the action is positive or negative.

• You better have a good reason for letting the dog in the house right after he played in the mud.

10. Love of / Love for

means that someone really likes something. Someone can have a love for or love of anything. When someone does have a love for something or someone they are really passionate about it.

• He has such a strong love for her, and it’s so beautiful to see.
• The love of money has lead to the downfall of many.

11. Reaction to

refers to someone having a certain feeling or doing a certain action because of something that happened. It can  be a physical or emotional reaction.

• He had a reaction to peanuts that caused him to go to the hospital.
• Her squeals of joy were in reaction to seeing her dad after such a long period of time.

12. Ability to

refers to someone or something being able to do something. A person can have an ability to do something, or a machine can have the ability to do something.

• Does this copier have the ability to make copies in color?

13. Memory of / Memory from

refers to remembering something from the past.

• I have so many memories of us playing together as kids.
• I don’t have a lot of memories from that night.

14. Chance of / Chance to

refers to there being a likelihood of something happening or of someone being able to do something. When there is a chance it means something might happen, there isn’t a guarantee that it will happen.

• Is there any chance of us being able to meet tomorrow afternoon.
• Will we have a chance to see each other while you’re on vacation?

Question: Why is the preposition IN used instead of FOR?

Answer:

IN is correct, of course, when referring to a period of time. It’s not so frequent as FOR in perfect tenses, but it’s correct.

Look at this slight change: ‘I haven’t seen him in the past five years.’ Doesn’t it sound better?

On the other hand, IN is often used with future forms:

• Talk to you IN 5 days!
• I’ll be back IN an hour.
• I have to find a new job in a month.

IN means NOT LATER THAN in these examples.

Question: Is AT a preposition?

Answer: Yes, AT is a preposition.

What is a preposition?

A preposition is a word that connect a noun or pronoun to another word or phrase in the rest of the sentence. Prepositions are common in the English language and often identify spatial relationships, time, location, direction, and possession. Examples of prepositions are “on,” “to,” “of,” “at,” and “in.”

Use of prepositions

A proposition must always be placed after the sentence’s subject and verb and then followed by a noun. Prepositions must be linked to an object of the preposition (noun or pronoun). A verb should never follow a preposition.

Typically, a preposition plays a modifying role, acting as an adjective or adverb that provides additional information to the noun, pronoun, noun phrase, or verb it modifies.

Preposition examples

Some common examples of prepositions are the words “for,” “from,” “before,» and “with.” The following is a list of prepositions commonly used in English:

Many prepositions do not function solely as a preposition, so it is important to identify the function of the word within a sentence to determine its part of speech.

Prepositions sentences

The following sentences contain one or more prepositions:

• He left on the boat with the treasure they found in the middle of the island.

• Did you buy a gift for Sarah’s birthday?

• Once Jeff arrived at the lake, he immediately jumped into the water.

• After their vacation, the Smith family spent the rest of the summer relaxing.

• Leah decided she would buy a new leash for her dog at the pet store in the mall.

Prepositional phrases

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that contain a preposition, an optional modifier, and an object of a preposition. The object can be a noun, gerund (verb ending in -ing), or clause.

The most common examples of prepositions used within prepositional phrases include the following:

When a writer uses a noun or verb to modify (describe) the object, they are called adjectival phrases or adverbial phrases, respectively. Therefore, each phrase is structured as follows:

• Basic Prepositional Phrase: Preposition + object

• Adjectival Prepositional Phrase: Preposition + noun modifier + object

• Adverbial Prepositional Phrase: Preposition + verb modifier + object

Examples of prepositional phrases

Basic prepositional phrases:

• Preposition: on

• Object: time

• Preposition: at

• Object: home

Adjectival prepositional phrases:

• Preposition: on

• Object: porch

• Modifier: Sam (noun)

• Preposition: in

• Object: backyard

• Modifier: her (noun)

Adverbial prepositional phrases:

• Preposition: into

• Object: car

• Verb Modified: step

• Preposition: of

• Object: school

• Verb Modified: ran

Preposition grammar

Grammatically, there are multiple rules to follow when using a preposition:

Rule 1: Prepositions must be linked to an object.

The object of a sentence is the person/thing that receives the action.

• Mitch left the tray in the kitchen.

• The preposition (in) is linked to the object (kitchen).

Rule 2: The object cannot be a verb.

Prepositions are never followed by a verb.

• Incorrect: The treat was for walked.

• Correct: The treat was for the dog.

Rule 3: Place the preposition before the pronoun/noun to which it has a relationship.

The prefix pre- means «before,» which helps indicate the position of the preposition.

Rule 4: Pronouns following a preposition should be in object form.

The objective pronoun form consists of me, her, them, etc. The subjective pronoun form (I, she, they, etc.) should not be used following a preposition.

• Incorrect: That’s between him and I.

• Correct: That’s between him and me.

Rule 5: Prepositions do not have a specific form.

Most prepositions are simply one word; however, there are some two- or three-word phrases called complex prepositions.

• One-word: at, in, of, on, and for

• Complex: but for, according to, on account of, and in spite of

Rule 6: To (preposition) has a different meaning as to (infinitive).

Avoid confusing the infinitive participle «to» with the preposition «to.»

• Infinitive participle: The children love to sing; They were going to leave tomorrow.

• Preposition: They loved singing to the audience; They were going to the zoo tomorrow.

Types of prepositions

There are eight different types of prepositions:

Example sentences including each category of preposition: