A Preposition

A Preposition :



A Preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence.

Consider the professor’s desk and all the prepositions we can use while talking about.

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 or between the desk and you. If he’s clumsy, he can bump into the desk and stuff would fall off the desk. Passing his hands over the desk or resting his elbows upon the desk, he often look 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.

These words in bold are all prepositions.

Prepositions can be used differently. We say…

a. We are at the hospital to visit a friend who is in the hospital.
b. We lie in bed but on the couch.
c. We watch a film at the theatre but on television.

For experts, these little words present little difficulty, but try to learn another language, any other language and you will quickly discover that prepositions are troublesome wherever you live and learn. The only way we can begin to master the usage of prepositions is through practice and paying close attention to speech and the written word. Keeping a good dictionary close at hand is an important first step.

RELATED LINKS :

1. Kinds of Prepositions
   
2. Prepositions of Time
   
3. Prepositions of Place
   
4. Prepositions of Location
   
5. Prepositions of Movement
   
6. Prepositions of Time
   
7. Prepositions with Nouns
   
8. Prepositions with Adjectives
   
9. Prepositions with Verbs
   
10. Phrasal Verbs
    
11. Idiomatic Expressions with Prepositions
    
12. Phrases and Clauses
    
13. Prepositional Phrase
    
14. Object of The Preposition
    
15. Functions of Prepositional Phrase in A Sentence
    
16. Preposition Exercise
    
17. A Preposition
    
18. Prepositions
    
19. The Preposition
    
20. Object of The Preposition
    
21. Omission of Object of The Preposition
    
22. Participial Prepositions
    
23. Compound Prepositions
    
24. BUT as A Preposition
    
25. Preposition and Object
    
26. Wrong Uses of Prepositions
    
27. Wrong Omissions of Prepositions
    
28. Misuses of Prepositions
    
29. Uses of Prepositions
    
30. Gerunds preceded by Prepositions
    
31. Peculiar Uses of Prepositions
    
32. Example Sentences with Appropriate Prepositions
    
33. Words followed by Appropriate Prepositions
    
34. Nouns followed by Prepositions
    
35. Participles followed by Prepositions
    
36. Adjectives followed by Prepositions
    
37. Verbs followed by Prepositions
    
38. Verbs and Prepositions
    
39. Sample Sentences with Prepositions
    
40. Sample Sentences with Prepositional Phrases
    

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