Teach4Endurance

Prepositions

I still have bad dreams about having to memorize the entire prepositional word list in elementary school. However, as a writer today, I've come to understand the vital importance of prepositions within a sentence. So, what are prepositions? Prepositions utilize nouns and pronouns to make a phrase (i.e. prepositional phrase). Then, they connect these phrases with the remaining portion of the sentence. While not an exact science, the prepositions (as writers) we likely use most often are: at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, and with.

 

While, not a complete list, the spreadsheet below will show the more common prepositions utilized in writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional Phrases (prepositions followed by a noun or pronoun) are able to modify nouns, verbs, and adjectives within a sentence. It's important to remember that prepositional phrases will always have an object being modified. See below for some examples of prepositional phrases.

 

1. Above the clouds, the sky remained blue.

2. The wind howled during the night.

3. The grumpy, old troll lived under the bridge.