Preposition And Prepositional Phrases

A preposition is a word that conveys a meaning of position, direction, time, or other abstraction. It functions to relate its object to another sentence element. A great number of prepositions will be supplied shortly. For now, consider the most commonly used prepositions: at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, and with.
at work, by then, for children, from them, in secret, of value, on top, to you, with us

A prepositional phrase consists of preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object. In the prepositional phrase by the foremost American athletes, the preposition is by, the object of the preposition is athletes, and the modifiers of the object is the foremost American.

Prepositional phrases are used to modify verb, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives.
Ex.
Modifiers of Verbs
Granny left the child in his crib.(Where did Granny leave the baby? In his crib.)

We keep our disks on the personal computer.( Where do we keep our disks? On the personal computer.)

Modifiers of Nouns and Pronoun
Ex.
She feels the love of her extended family.(Whose love? The love of her extended family.)

They want something by their favorite composer.(What do they want by their favorite composer? Something.)

Modifiers of Adjectives
Ex.
My brothers are young in spirit.(Young in what sense? Young in spirit.)

Her message was simple in content,profound in implication.(Simple in what sense?Simple in content. Profound in implication.)

Commonly Used Prepositions
The following list identifies many commonly used prepositions and provides examples of their use. In addition to the single words that are given, phrases are listed that also function as prepositions.

aboard......................aboard the plane, aboard the bandwagon.
about........................about town, about dogs
above........................above life, itself, above all
according to ..............according to experts,according to convention
across.......................across the street, across our property
after .........................after dinner, after an accident
ahead of ...................ahead of our time, ahead of the mob
alongside.................alongside the float, alongside the building
apart from................apart from her injuries, apart from the reward
aside from................aside from his inaugural address, aside from my own thoughts
among.....................among their objections, among the nations
amid........................amid the crowd, amid our protests
amidst.....................amidst my work, amidst the meeting
as far as ..................as far as Boston, as far as the market

Object of a Preposition
The object of preposition is always in the objective case. The only part of speech that shows case is the pronoun. Subjective: I, you, he, she, it, we, you ,they,; who. Objective: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them; whom. Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs; whose.


The case of immediate interest here is the objective case. In each of the following examples, the object of the preposition to is a pronoun in the objective case:

They gave their furniture to me.
We will give it to you.
Francis gave the book to him.
We spoke to her.
We offered dog biscuits to it.
They gave money to us.
The minister will soon speak to you.
We will say nothing to them.
Whom did you speak to?

Differentiating Preposition from Other Parts of Speech
Many words that are classified ad preposition, for example, after, but, and since, are also used as other parts of speech: adverbs, adjectives, or conjunctions. The way to determine the part of speech you are dealing with i to examine its role in a sentence. Consider the following sentence:

Boy marched to the blackboard, one after another.(Preposition)
Do not follow after your children.(Preposition)
After dinner, all the men smoked cigars.(Preposition)
She named her son after her father.(Preposition)
Jill tumbled after.(Adverb)
They lived happily ever after.(Adverb)
Does she still take an after dinner drink?(Adjective)
After I find a suitable apartment, I will move all my furniture.(Conjunction)