Prepositional Phrases
 
 
    A preposition is one of the seven parts of speech.

  The first thing one should know about a preposition is that it always appears in a sentence as the first word of a short phrase. A phrase is a group of words that makes sense but does not have a subject and a verb.

  The second thing one should know is that the prepositional phrase always begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition. The object of a preposition is always a noun or a pronoun.

    Examples of prepositional phrases with the preposition in italics and the object of the preposition in parentheses: to the (store), in the (bank), under the (bridge), over your (head)

  The third thing to know about prepositions is that there two different methods of learning how to identify a preposition. One can memorize a complete list or a simple test can be used to determine whether a word is a preposition or not.
 

 

The simple test

    Look at the phrase, " _________ the bridge." If you can fill in the blank with a word that makes sense but it not a verb, you will always have a preposition. It is a quick and easy test.

Examples:
        beneath the bridge
        between the bridges
        toward the bridge
        on the bridge
        after the bridge
        before the bridge
        under the bridge
        alongside the bridge
 

    The following phrases do not contain a prepositional phrase because each phrase begins with a verb:

burn the bridge
cross the bridge
build the bridge

  The most common prepositions: (Feel free to memorize,)
 aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, among around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but (meaning except), by, concerning, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, near, of, off, on, out, over, past, since, through, throughout, till, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, without

 

Compound Prepositions (prepositions made up of two or more words)

According to, as of, aside from, because of, by means of, in addition to, in front of, in place of, in spite of, instead of, next to, on account of, out of, owing to, prior to

    Fourth, and this is very important, a prepositional phrase is very seldom a working part of a sentence.  In other words, a prepositional phrase can be eliminated from the sentence, and the basic structure of the sentence is not changed.  As a matter of fact, it is best to eliminate prepositional phrases when attempting to determine the structure of a sentence.

    Ready to move along?

        What we suggest is that you move on to sentence patterns.  There you will see how finding prepositional phrases and removing them from the sentence is necessary to identifying the sentence patterns.  Click here to move to Sentence Pattern #1.  Or you can return to the Menu.