PREPOSITIONS
Identifying prepositions
What is a preposition? The prepositions are underlined in the following sentences.
1. She made notes on the paper.
2.My office is between the post office and the laundromat.
3. I’ll meet you after work.
Quick tip
Prepositions are words, usually small, that typically indicate information about direction, location, or time. There is only a small number of prepositions in English. Some commonly used examples are at, from, in, on, and to.
Quick tip
If you can put a word in one of the empty slots in one of the following sentences, the word is a preposition: I walked ______ the table. It happened ______ that time.
This tip will help you identify many, though not all, prepositions.
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To enhance your understanding
Don’t confuse the two types of to:
4. I want to go home. (infinitive: to + verb)
5. I went to Chicago. (preposition: to + noun)
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To further enhance your understanding
Take a look at the following sentences.
6. I’m standing in front of my house.
7. That man was ahead of her.
8. Please get out of his way.
Each of these sentences contains a multiword preposition, that is, a preposition consisting of more than one word. Below is a list of common multi word prepositions, commonly called compound or phrasal prepositions.
