PREPOSITIONS

303. Have you noticed that all of these phrases, which we have been studying and using as adjectives and adverbs, begin with a little word like of, with, from, in, at or by, which connects the phrase with the word it modifies? We could scarcely express our meaning without these little words. They are connecting words and fill an important function. These words usually come first in the phrase. For this reason, they are called prepositions, which means to place before.

Let us see what a useful place these little words fill in our language. Suppose we were watching the play of some boys outside our windows and were reporting their hiding place. We might say:

These sentences are all alike except the prepositions in, among, under, behind and beyond. If you read the sentences and leave out these prepositions entirely, you will see that nobody could possibly tell what connection the bushes had with the rest of the sentence. The prepositions are necessary to express the relation of the word bushes to the rest of the sentence.

But this is not all. You can readily see that the use of a different preposition changes the meaning of the sentence. It means quite a different thing to say, The boys are hiding in the bushes, and to say, The boys are hiding beyond the bushes. So the preposition has a great deal to do with the true expression of our ideas.

The noun bushes is used as the object of the preposition, and the preposition shows the relation of its object to the word which it modifies. You remember that nouns have the same form whether they are used as subject or as object, but if you are using a pronoun after a preposition, always use the object form of the pronoun. For example:

In these sentences the pronouns, him, them, and her are used as objects of the prepositions from, to and for. So we have used the object forms of these pronouns.

304. The noun or pronoun that follows the preposition, and is used with it to make a phrase, is the object of the preposition. The preposition is used to show the relation that exists between its object and the word the object modifies. In the sentence above, The boys are hiding in the bushes, the preposition in shows the relationship between the verb phrase, are hiding and the object of the preposition, bushes.

The noun or pronoun which is the object of a preposition may also have its modifiers. In the sentences used about the noun bush, which is the object of the prepositions used, is modified by the adjective the. Other modifiers might also be added, as for example:

The entire phrase, in the tall, thick bushes, is made up of the preposition in, its object bushes and the modifiers of bushes, the, tall and thick.

305. The preposition, with its object and the modifiers of the object, forms a phrase which we call a prepositional phrase. These prepositional phrases may be used either as adjectives or as adverbs, so we have our definitions:

A preposition is a word that shows the relation of its object to some other word.

A phrase is a group of words used as a single word.

A prepositional phrase is a phrase composed of a preposition and its object and modifiers.

An adjective phrase is a prepositional phrase used as an adjective.

An adverb phrase is a prepositional phrase used as an adverb.

306. Here is a list of the most common and most important prepositions. Use each one in a sentence: