Prepositions connect phrases, nouns, and pronouns with other words in a sentence. They’re words that show location, placement, or orientation. A convenient way to remember what prepositions are is to remember the word “position” within "preposition": they can tell you an object’s position.
Common prepositions include:
Here’s a sentence with a common preposition:
“The cookies are inside the cookie jar.”
In this sentence, “inside” is our preposition because it tells us where the cookies are.
Here are a few more examples, with the prepositions in bold:
Since prepositions refer to location, placement, and orientation, there are several types.
If you’re describing use of an implement, machine, or device, you’ll need a preposition. For example:
These prepositions indicate an object’s direction, or the way it’s facing.
Prepositions of time indicate how objects relate to one another in terms of when they happen.
These prepositions correspond to a person or agent performing an action.
Prepositions of place define an object’s position.
Seems clear enough, doesn’t it? Well the English language is never that straightforward! You should also know about particles.
In some sentences, words that normally act as prepositions appear instead of parts of verbs. These words are known as particles. You’ve probably heard many of these phrasal verbs:
In these phrasal verbs, “up”, “down”, and “back” would normally be treated as prepositions. Here, however, since they’re essentially part of the verb, they’re particles instead. Here they are in full sentences:
A good way to differentiate them is to shift the word in question to the beginning of the sentence. If this new sentence makes sense, you’ve got a preposition. If not, you’ve got a particle. Let’s try one of our sentences above.
That makes no sense. Therefore, “up” is indeed a particle. Now let’s try this sentence:
Now let’s try our trick.
That makes sense, so “up” in this sentence is a preposition, not a particle.
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