Language/English/Grammar/Prepositions

Preposition

Prepositions are short words (on, in, to) that usually stand in front of nouns (sometimes also in front of gerund verbs).

A prepositions describes a relationship between other words in a sentence or phrase.

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

Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional phrases.

Prepositional phrases can be made up of a million different words, but they tend to be built the same: a preposition followed by an optional determiner and an optional adjective (or two) followed by a noun or pronoun (called the object of the preposition).

This whole phrase, in turn, takes on a modifying role, acting as an adjective or an adverb, locating something in time and space, modifying a noun, or telling when or where or under what conditions something happened.

• Prepositions indicate relationships between other words in a sentence.
• Many prepositions tell you where something is or when something happened.
• Most prepositions have several definitions, so the meaning changes quite a bit in different contexts.
• When prepositions combine with verbs to create phrasal verbs, such as "put up (with)" (tolerate) and "put down" (insult), the meanings are not usually simply a sum of the two words put together.
• Ending an English sentence with a preposition is not a grammatical error.

Examples

You can sit before the desk OR in front of the desk.

The professor 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).

Here are examples of prepositions and their meaning:

Preposition	Meaning	Example
about	for topics, meaning what about	I was talking about you
above	higher than, or over	The sun is above the clouds.
across	from one side to the other	It's dangerous to run across the road.
adjacent	be next to, be beside something	The parking lot is adjacent to the park.
along	from one end to the other	They are walking along the road.
among	surrounded by	John was among the spectators.
at	position in space or time	He learned Russian at 45 / He is at the store.
behind	at the back of	Passengers sit behind the driver.
below	lower than	His shorts are below his knees.
beneath	under	The pen was beneath the books.
beside	next to	The bank is beside the cinema.
between	in the space separating two things	Mary sat between Tom and Jane.
by	who made it	A book by Mark Twain
close to	near	The bank is close to the school
down	from higher to lower	He pulled down the blind.
for	what is intended	I bought this book for you.
from	where something starts or originates	The wind is blowing from the south.
from	source / point of origin	A present from Jane
in	located within	Get in the car!
in front of	directly before	The child ran out in front of the bus.
inside	in the inner part of	The bird is inside the cage.
into	enter a closed space	He went into the shop.
near	close to	The school is near the church.
next to	beside	The bank is next to the cinema.
off	movement away from a source	The men get off the train.
on	in a position touching a surface	The plate is on the table.
onto	move to a position on a surface	The cat jumped onto the roof of the car.
opposite	facing, on the other side	Eva sat opposite Tom at the table.
out of	leaving a car / taxi	The passengers get out of the taxi
past	beyond	He drove past the supermarket.
round	in a circular movement	The earth moves round the sun.
through	from one side to the other	The Seine flows through Paris.
throughout	in every part of	The virus spread throughout the country.
to	in the direction of; towards	On the way to the station.
towards	in the direction of	The child ran towards her father.
under	beneath, below	Water flows under the bridge.
underneath	beneath	There was dust underneath the rug.
up	towards or in a higher position	He walked up the stairs.

Other Lessons

• Prepositions of Direction
• Gender
• Adverbs of Degree
• False Ellipsis (Part 2)
• POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
• Perfect Tenses
• Adverbs of Manner
• How Some pointers when using Adjectives
• Countable and Uncountable Nouns
• Present Tense