Saturday, 17 August 2013

Prepositional Phrases in Grammar



A prepositional phrase always begins with a preposition, ends with an object, and may have modifiers between the preposition and object of the preposition. A preposition and its object is called a prepositional phrase. Some words that are commonly used as propositions are:
up, down, behind, beside, at, on, over, below, about, above, beyond, along, aside, between, beneath, in spite of, instead of, into, like, near, since, through, towards, under, for, with, upon, except, because of, inside, outside, until, etc.

These words can also be used as prepositions in a prepositional phrase. If any of these words do not have an object when used in a sentence, then the word is not working as a preposition.
A word can be a preposition only when it has an object to complete it. To decide what the object is, say the preposition followed by whom or what. If a noun or a pronoun answers the question, the word is a preposition. For example:

Example: He stood up and hid behind the door. 
He stood up what? There is no object; therefore ‘up’ is not a preposition.
Hid behind what? ‘The door’ is the answer; therefore, ‘behind’ is a preposition. ‘Behind the door’ is the prepositional phrase starting with the preposition ‘behind’ and ending with the object ‘door’ with a modifier ‘the’ in between.

There can be numerous prepositional phrases depending on varied sentences and how the prepositions are used in them. Some examples can be: at home, in time, with me, under the warm blanket, on the chair, etc.

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