Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

What is a preposition? A preposition is a word that shows a relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence. The girls are playing in the yard. (in shows the relationship between girls and yard)

Prepositional Phrase  A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object.

Object of the preposition  The object of the preposition is the noun or pronoun following the preposition. Rome is the capital of Italy.

Beware of adverbs In order for a word to actually be a preposition, it must have an object. We walked around the city streets. If the preposition-like word does NOT have an object, it’s just an adverb. We spent the day walking around.

Above Beside Around Before Against Below Behind Beneath By Inside Near On Over Past Through Under After

And then there’s some tricky ones… aboutasdown betweenduringexcept alongbeyondfor amongdespitefrom inintoof likeoffout totowarduntil upwithwithout

The plane finally landed in Rome.

I had actually reached the city of my dreams.

I gazed out the window as we taxied closer. I gazed out the window as we taxied closer

Was that the Coliseum I saw to the right?

I imagined Julius Ceasar marching with his troops.

During the next few days, I would explore the city.

Practice 1.down the river 2.into left field 3.on the buffalo 4.in his laboratory 5.from dried animal skins 6.from the Persian language 7.off the coast, of Florida 8.through his magnifying glass 9.behind the clouds 10.In the morning, outside my window

Writing with Prepositional Phrases Our hotel is across the river. Our hotel is behind the clock tower.