Add your Article
- Agriculture
- Growing Healthier Tomato Plants
- Treating peanut allergy bit by bit
- Protecting Cows—and People—from a Deadly Disease
- Chemistry and Materials
- Sweeeet! The Skinny on Sugar Substitutes
- A New Basketball Gets Slick
- Lighting goes digital
- E Learning Jamaica
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
- E Learning in Jamaica WIN PRIZES and try our Fun Animated Games
- 2014 GSAT Results for Jamaican Kids
- Finding the Past
- Of Lice and Old Clothes
- Oldest Writing in the New World
- Little People Cause Big Surprise
- GSAT Exam Preparation Jamaica
- Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) Scholarships
- 42,000 students will sit for the GSAT Exam in two weeks
- March 21-22, 2013: Over 43,000 students will take the GSAT Exam
- GSAT Exams Jamaica Scholarships
- GSAT Exam Preparation
- Access denied - Disabled boy aces GSAT
- Results of GSAT are in schools this week
What is a Preposition?
Published: 03/15/2012
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:The book is on the table.The book is beneath the table.The book is leaning against the table.The book is beside the table.She held the book over the table.She read the book during class.In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. The most common prepositions are "about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "at," "before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "but," "by," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "for," "from," "in," "inside," "into," "like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto," "out," "outside," "over," "past," "since," "through," "throughout," "till," "to," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until," "up," "upon," "with," "within," and "without."Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a preposition:The children climbed the mountain without fear.In this sentence, the preposition "without" introduces the noun "fear." The prepositional phrase "without fear" functions as an adverb describing how the children climbed.There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was defeated.Here, the preposition "throughout" introduces the noun phrase "the land." The prepositional phrase acts as an adverb describing the location of the rejoicing.The spider crawled slowly along the banister.The preposition "along" introduces the noun phrase "the banister" and the prepositional phrase "along the banister" acts as an adverb, describing where the spider crawled.The dog is hiding under the porch because it knows it will be punished for chewing up a new pair of shoes.Here the preposition "under" introduces the prepositional phrase "under the porch," which acts as an adverb modifying the compound verb "is hiding."The screenwriter searched for the manuscript he was certain was somewhere in his office.Similarly in this sentence, the preposition "in" introduces a prepositional phrase "in his office," which acts as an adverb describing the location of the missing papers.Written by Heather MacFadyen