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 :
- Kinds of Prepositions
- Prepositions of Time
- Prepositions of Place
- Prepositions of Location
- Prepositions of Movement
- Prepositions of Time
- Prepositions with Nouns
- Prepositions with Adjectives
- Prepositions with Verbs
- Phrasal Verbs
- Idiomatic Expressions with Prepositions
- Phrases and Clauses
- Prepositional Phrase
- Object of The Preposition
- Functions of Prepositional Phrase in A Sentence
- Preposition Exercise
- A Preposition
- Prepositions
- The Preposition
- Object of The Preposition
- Omission of Object of The Preposition
- Participial Prepositions
- Compound Prepositions
- BUT as A Preposition
- Preposition and Object
- Wrong Uses of Prepositions
- Wrong Omissions of Prepositions
- Misuses of Prepositions
- Uses of Prepositions
- Gerunds preceded by Prepositions
- Peculiar Uses of Prepositions
- Example Sentences with Appropriate Prepositions
- Words followed by Appropriate Prepositions
- Nouns followed by Prepositions
- Participles followed by Prepositions
- Adjectives followed by Prepositions
- Verbs followed by Prepositions
- Verbs and Prepositions
- Sample Sentences with Prepositions
- Sample Sentences with Prepositional Phrases
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