The Preposition By CHANDER SHARMA Lecturer In Eng. DIET Mohra Ambala

Definition A ‘Preposition’ is a word usually placed before a noun or a pronoun to govern it and shows its relation with other words in a sentence.

Kinds Of Preposition There are five different kinds of preposition: 1. Simple Prepositions: In, of, on, off, to, up, with, at, by, for, etc. 2. Compound Prepositions: Without, within, outside, inside, into, behind, beside, beneath, across, between etc. 3. Double Prepositions: Outside of, out of, from out, from behind, from beneath etc.

4. Participle Prepositions: Notwithstanding, concerning, pending, considering. They are participles of verbs used as prepositions. 5. Phrase Prepositions : By means of, because of, on account of, in opposition to, for the sake of, instead of, on behalf of, with a view to, in the event of etc

Rules of Prepositions and UsAGE Rule 1 : ‘After’ refers to a past space; ‘in’ refers to a future space of time; as: Incorrect : He turned up in a few days. Correct : He turned up after a few days. Incorrect : He will turn after a few days. Correct : He will turn up in few days.

Rule 2 : ‘At’ is used when speaking of small towns and villages; ‘in’ is used with names of countries and large towns; as: Incorrect : He lives in Kamla Nehru Nagar Delhi. Correct : He lives at Kamla Nehru Nagar in Delhi.

Rule 3 : ‘In’ denotes ‘rest’ or ‘motion’ inside anything; ‘into’ denotes motion towards the inside of anything; as : Incorrect : He was into the room. Correct : He was in the room. Incorrect : She jumped in the well. Correct : She jumped into the well.

Rule 4 : ‘Till' is used of time; ‘to’ is used of space; as : Incorrect : He played to six o’clock. Correct : He played till six o’clock. Incorrect : She walked till the end of the field. Correct : She walked to the end of the field.

Rule 5 : ‘At’ is used of things at rest; ‘to’ is used of things in motion; as : Incorrect : He is to the top of the class. Correct : He is at the top of the class. Incorrect : He ran at office. Correct : He ran to office.

Rule 6 : ‘In’ before denotes a period of time ‘at the end of’ ; ‘within’ means ‘before the end of’ ; as : a) He will return in a week. b) He will return within a week. The difference between the two may be noted.

Rule 7 : ‘Beside’ means ‘by the side of’ ; ‘besides ‘means ‘in addition to’ ; as : Incorrect : My son sat besides me. Correct : My son sat beside me. Incorrect : Beside being beaten, he was fined. Correct : Besides being beaten, he was fined.

Rule 8 : ‘Between’ is used with reference to two persons or things; ‘among’ with reference to more than two; as : a)There is no love lost between the two brothers. b)The five robbers shared the booty among themselves. Note : But ‘between’ can be used for more than two things or persons to denotes some mutual action or relation.

The following expressions are accepted as correct : a) The space lying between three points. b) A treaty between three powers. a) To insert a needle between the closed petals of a flower.

Rule 9 : ‘With’ often denotes the instrument; ‘by’ the agent ; as : Incorrect : He killed the snake by a stick. Correct : He killed the snake with a stick. Incorrect : All the purchases were made with suresh. Correct : All the purchases were made by suresh.

Rule 10 : ‘Since’ and ‘from’ are used before a noun or a phrase denoting some point of time but ‘since’ is preceded by a verb in some perfect tense; ‘from’ is used with other tenses expect the perfect tense; ‘for refers to a period of time,; not to a point of time and should not be substituted by ‘since’ or ‘from’.

The following sentences may be carefully noted. a) She has eaten nothing since yesterday. b) He has been suffering from fever for ten days. c) He will take rest from July. d) I will join the college from tomorrow. e) I have been here since ten O’clock.

Rule 11 : ‘Ago’ refers to the past time, ‘before’ denotes precedence between two events as: a) She was married two years ago. b) He was married two years before his coming to Agra.

Rule 12 : The Phrase of time ‘morning’, ‘afternoon’, evening’ are preceded by the preposition ‘in’, whereas ‘day break’, noon’, ‘mid day’ and ‘mid-night’ are preceded by the preposition ‘at’. But when these phrases are qualified by ‘last’ or ‘next’, they are not preceded by any preposition; as: a) They met at one place in the evening. b) Please see me in the morning tomorrow. c) I will see you at night. d) He met me last evening.

Rule 13 : When used in active voice the following verbs are not following by any prepositions : Reach, attack, pick, resist, request, persuade, precede, succeed, obey, inform, resemble, assist, violate, combat, benefit, afford, accompany note the examples : a) He reached Agra at ten o’clock. b) He attacked him violently. c) The spirit of God pervades the universe. d) They have violated all the canons of morality.

Rule 14 : Care should be taken not to use the same preposition with two words unless it is appropriate to each other of them; as : Incorrect : It is different and superior to other. Correct : It is different from and superior to other.

Rule 15 : Preposition is not used after the following words : During, regarding, considering, pending, touching, barring, respecting, notwithstanding, concerning; as: Incorrect : Pending of the final settlement of the dispute, both countries are sharing the waters of these rivers. Correct : Pending the final settlement of the dispute, both countries are sharing the waters of these rivers.

Rule 16: As a general rule a preposition is placed before its object. But the following exceptions should be noted: (i) The preposition is frequently placed at the end if the sentence when the object is an interrogative pronoun understood: as : What are you looking at? (ii) The preposition is placed at the end when it combines with a preceding transitive verb to form a compound transitive verb; as

(a) I do not like to be talked about. (b) Such an outcome cannot be wondered at. (iii) The preposition is placed at the end of the sentence when its object is the relative pronoun ‘that’; as: Here is the book I was telling you about. a) This is the place that he came to. b) This is the book I was telling you about. c) What can I cut the bread with? d) What can I cut the bread with?

(iv) Sometimes the object is placed first and preposition last for the sake of emphasis; as : Gandhiji was known as saint all the world over.

Few important prepositions are : at, by, for, in, from, to, up, with, of, off, through, out, into, upon, on, since, over, above, under, below, behind, down, against, between, among, before, beneath, beyond, across, inside, outside, within, without.

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