PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Prepositions A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how something is situated in relationship to something else.

So Many Prepositions Consider the teacher’s desk and all the prepositional phrases we can use while talking about it. You can sit before the desk (or in front of the desk). The teacher can sit on the desk (when he's being informal) or behind the desk, and then his feet are under the desk or beneath the desk. He can stand beside the desk (meaning next to the desk), before the desk, between the desk and you, or even on the desk (if he's really strange). If he's clumsy, he can bump into the desk or try to walk through the desk (and stuff would fall off the desk). Passing his hands over the desk or resting his elbows upon the desk, he often looks across the desk and speaks of the desk or concerning the desk as if there were nothing else like the desk. Because he thinks of nothing except the desk, sometimes you wonder about the desk, what's in the desk, what he paid for the desk, and if he could live without the desk. You can walk toward the desk, to the desk, around the desk, by the desk, and even past the desk while he sits at the desk or leans against the desk. All of this happens, of course, in time: during the class, before the class, until the class, throughout the class, after the class, etc. And the professor can sit therein a bad mood [another adverbial construction]. Those words in bold font are all prepositions.

Prepositions of Time: at, on, and in The train is due at 12:15 p.m. My brother is coming on Monday. She likes to jog in the morning Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Road in Wilmington. Her house is on Boretz Road. She lives in Wilmington. Prepositions of Location: in, at, and on and No Preposition IN (the) bed* the bedroom the car (the) class* the library* school* AT class* home the library* the office school* work ON the bed* the ceiling the floor the horse the plane the train NO PREPOSITION downstairs downtown inside outside upstairs uptown

What is a PHRASE? A phrase is a group of words that acts as a single part of speech (like an adjective) that does not contain both a subject and a verb. It is a fragment of a sentence, so it cannot express an idea on its own. After midnight on the roof with a Ukranian bullfighter

What’s a PHRASE? Egor's mother was dancing. After midnight, Egor's mother was dancing. After midnight, Egor's mother was on the roof dancing. After midnight, Egor's mother was on the roof dancing with a Ukranian bullfighter.

What’s a PHRASE? Felcity stared. Surprised by the intensity of her disgust, Felicity stared. Surprised by the intensity of her disgust, Felicity stared at the cockroach. Surprised by the intensity of her disgust, Felicity stared at the cockroach scurrying across her omelet.

Prepositions Most prepositions are difficult to define: of, in, off, by, through, between, etc.

Most of the time, prepositions indicate location

Prepositional Phrases Prepositional Phrases function as adjectives or adverbs in a sentence. They are formed like this: preposition + optional modifiers + noun, pronoun, or gerund (running) Example: over the rainbow (over = preposition) + (the = article) + (rainbow = noun)

Prepositional Phrases In the beginning Before the fall After the brutal fight At school Down the aisle Across the street Inside your ear Outside the house Between two girls By chewing Behind the scenes On the wooden table By the sea Under the couch In the beginning Before the fall After the brutal fight At school Down the aisle Across the street Inside your ear Outside the house Between two girls By chewing Behind the scenes On the wooden table By the sea Under the couch Around the bend Down in the sand trap Into the dark woods Against the wind Near the mouse Through the tunnel To school Like Larry’s uncle Except my friend Over the rainbow Up the rough river Without a paddle With anger Toward the door Around the bend Down in the sand trap Into the dark woods Against the wind Near the mouse Through the tunnel To school Like Larry’s uncle Except my friend Over the rainbow Up the rough river Without a paddle With anger Toward the door

Notice – prepositional phrases usually end with a noun or pronoun, which is the OBJECT of the preposition After the brutal fight Inside your wax-filled ear Outside the blue house Between two girls Beside you With me After the brutal fight Inside your wax-filled ear Outside the blue house Between two girls Beside you With me

A prepositional phrase can open a sentence Without help, Janie wrote this message to her teacher. Notice: the comma offsets the prepositional phrase

A prepositional phrase can close a sentence We ate corn dogs and drank root beer floats after the baseball game. Notice NO comma is needed

A prepositional phrase can split the main subject and verb All the puppies, except those that had been trained, pooped everywhere! Notice: commas offset the prepositional phrase

A sentence can have consecutive prepositional phrases We saw this holiday tree in the mall, on some guy’s head. 1 2

A sentence can have consecutive prepositional phrases In grandma’s attic, under the window, in a cardboard box between two garbage cans, we found these scary Santa Clauses