A Little Post About Little Words: Prepositions (More of the Parts of Speech Series)

If you go back far enough, you will find the beginning of this series about the parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Yikes! Did I skip

verbs? Was I waiting for later because verbs have so many aspects? I don’t remember, but I don’t see the verb post.  In any case, today we will talk about prepositions.

What Are Prepositions?

Usually, I see  prepositions defined as follows: a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause. Please let me know if you can figure out what that means! 

Here is what I say: A preposition is usually a little word. It always appears in a phrase, and the phrase tells where or how or what kind. Remember that a phrase is a small (usually) group of words that does not have both a noun and a verb. Prepositional phrases have nouns or pronouns, and they never have verbs. The structure of a prepositional phrase is always pretty much the same. The phrase always begins with the preposition. Then comes an article (a, an, the) most of the time, but not always. Then comes the noun or pronoun (and any adjectives that might describe the noun or pronoun). Here are examples or prepositional phrases. 

• in the house (tells where)
• at school (tells where; this one has no article)
• by that famous author (what kind)
• after the party (when)
• before school (when) 
• with stripes (what kind)
• below the clouds (where)

There are lots of prepositions. Here are some others: beneath, beside, along, out, up, down, within, without, past, until, since. There are even some multi-word prepositions: along with, because of, according to, and more. But the prepositional phrase always follows the same format. Preposition/article/noun, with the variations described above.

What Do They Do?

Prepositional phrases act as adverbs or adjectives, further described as adverbial or adjectival phrases.  If they tell where or when, they are modifying verbs and acting as adverbs. If they tell what kind, they are describing nouns or pronouns and are functioning as adjectives. 

I like the dress with the blue trim. (with the blue trim tells what kind and describes dress – adjectival)

Please come over after the dance. (after he dance tells when and describes come over – adverb)

Sometimes They are Adverbs and Not Prepositions 

Sometimes you will see a preposition without a phrase, maybe hanging out at the end of the sentence: I am going outside. Outside tells where, but it isn’t in a prepositional phrase. So it is not a preposition here. It is an adverb.  Here are a few more examples.

• I am going in.
• Did you go out?
• I will see you around.

Sometimes They Are Conjunctions

Sometimes you will see what you think is a preposition followed by a noun and a verb (so it is a clause, not a phrase). In this case, the word is a subordinating conjunction, beginning an adverb clause. Look at the differences here:

• Let’s go to the mall after the game. (prepositional phrase)
• After the game is over, let’s go to the mall. (adverbial clause beginning with a subordinating conjunction)
• I won’t leave until you come home. (adverbial clause)
• I cannot leave until five o-clock. (prepositional phrase)

Can I End a Sentence with a Preposition?

Yes, you can. Sometimes. You will see that the rest of the prepositional phrase is actually there, but it is before the preposition:

• Whom are you going with? (with whom is the prepositional phrase)
• Whom is that book by? (by whom is the prepositional phrase)

Note that we are using whom, not who. That is because it is the object of a preposition, and whom is the objective case.

• Where are you at? Nope. This one is wrong. There is no phrase, and you don’t need the preposition at all. Where are you? is enough.

Placement

It doesn’t matter if you know an adverbial phrase from an adjectival. Or whether you know if your word is being used as a preposition or an adverb. But it does matter where you put your prepositional phrase in the sentence. You don’t want to misplace it (like in these examples): 

• I heard about the meeting in the men’s room.
• I am selling an antique desk suitable for a student with thick legs and large drawers.
• These mixing bowls are sure to please any cook with round bottoms for efficient beating.
• Did you see the medals that I won in the attic?
• That boy will feed our dogs in the Metallica tee shirt.

Next Week: Conjunctions! Bet you can’t wait. We will find something interesting about them, I am sure!