Prepositions

PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions are connecting words. A preposition shows a relationship between two words. The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount. In the sentence, She went to the store, to is a preposition that shows direction. In the sentence, He came by bus, by is a preposition which shows manner. In the sentence, They will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time. And in the sentence, It is under the table, under is a preposition which shows place. We use many prepositions quite often. Here are the most common ones:

about	beside	inside	since
above	besides	into	through
across	between	like	throughout
after	beyond	near	to
against	but (meaning except)	of	toward
along	by	off	under
among	concerning	on	underneath
around	despite	onto	unlike
as	down	out	until
at	during	outside	up
before	except	over	upon
behind	for	past	with
below	from	regarding	within
beneath	in	round	without

Prepositions connect words to show a relationship between the words.

Relationship: Direction

into

across

toward

down

Relationship: Location

above	among	around	at	beside
between	by	in	on	over
through	toward	under

Relationship: Time

after

before

during

until

since

Other Relationships

against	but	for	from	of
to	with

A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun, which is called the object of the preposition. The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is called a pre position (pre means before, so a preposition is a word positioned before a noun or pronoun). The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase. The following chart shows the prepositions, objects of the preposition, and prepositional phrases of the sentences above.

Preposition	Object of Preposition	Prepositional Phrase
to	the store	to the store
by	bus	by bus
at	three o'clock	at three o'clock
under	the table	under the table

Prepositional phrases are best learned through listening to and reading as much as possible. Below are some common prepositions of time and place and examples of their use.

Prepositions of time:

at three o'clock
on Friday
in an hour, in December; in 2004
for a day

Prepositions of place:

at my house
in Dallas, in my hand
on the table
near the library
across the street
under the bed
between the books

Página actualizada el viernes, 26 de octubre de 2007