Preposition

Prepositions are one very important component of English language and English grammar. Do you know what a preposition is? You must have heard about it and be familiar with the term but somewhat vague on the meaning as it was back when you were in middle school.

Well, it doesn’t matter. I am here to help. Today, I will talk about prepositions, what they are, how they are used in sentences and what purpose they serve in English grammar? Moreover, I will discuss some tricks to identify a preposition in a sentence.

Preposition

A preposition is a term in English language that refers to a word in a sentence that links or joins a noun or pronoun to another word of that sentence. In other words, a preposition highlights the relationship between two or more words in a sentence.

Example:

She was sitting on the stool.

In the above sentence, the relationship between the noun she and the noun stool is established by on, thus on is the preposition in this example.

Location of Preposition

A preposition always occurs before the noun that it shows the relation of with another word. The word that preposition precedes maybe a noun or a pronoun.

Example:

The president of the committee will address now.

The word of in the above example appears before the committee and shows the relationship of the president and the committee, thus of is the preposition in this example.

The word that follows the preposition is usually known as the object of preposition.

Example:

The bag was under the chair.

Under is the preposition in this example and the word following it i.e. the chair is the object of preposition as under is describing a relationship between the bag and the chair.

Examples:

Some very commonly used prepositions in English language include:

Above, about, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, since, to, toward, through, under, until, up, upon, with and within.

In conclusion, you now know that prepositions are short words that show the relation of one word in a sentence to another word in the same sentence. These words can be either nouns or pronouns. The preposition always comes before the word it shows relationship of and the word that comes after it is called the object of preposition.