A preposition is a word that shows the relation of a noun, phrase, or clause to the rest of the sentence. Prepositions are typically small in size (above, after, at, before, below, down, during, for, in, into, off, on, out, over, under, up, with, without), but they are among the most useful words in the language, linking together the various elements of a sentence. A preposition and the element it links with are formally referred to as a prepositional phrase.Prepositions can be used to link many different kinds of sentence elements, the words following a preposition being formally termed the prepositional complement. The prepositional complement may be a noun phrase, a pronoun, an adverb, or another prepositional phrase, as illustrated, respectively, in the following examples:The man ran out of the house.
These chocolates are for you.
Is there any light in here?
The aircraft emerged from behind a cloud. When a preposition refers to two complements in the same sentence, it does not necessarily have to be repeated:She went shopping with her mother and father.
They know lots about music and painting. The preposition should be repeated, however, if there is any risk that by not doing so the meaning of the sentence may be misconstrued. His mother was thinking about going abroad and about writing a book, for example, may not mean the same thing as his mother was thinking about going abroad and writing a book. (In the first example the implication is that the activities of going abroad and writing a book are not necessarily linked, while in the second example they are more likely to be.)All the prepositions so far described have consisted of just one word (so-called simple prepositions), but there are other prepositions that consist of two or more words (called complex prepositions). These behave in exactly the same way as simple prepositions. They include such constructions as according to, ahead of, apart from, as far as, as for, as to, as well as, away from, because of, but for, by means of, close to, due to, except for, further to, in accordance with, in addition to, in case of, in face of, in spite of, instead of, in terms of, in view of, near to, next to, on account of, on behalf of, on top of, out of, owing to, regardless of, up to, with reference to, and with regard to.It is sometimes easy to become confused between prepositions and adverbs or conjunctions, particularly because a number of words may operate as either without any change in appearance. The preposition onto (get onto the table), for instance, may also be encountered in the form of the adverb on together with the preposition to (go on to the end). The preposition until (they slept until sunrise), meanwhile, may also be found functioning as a conjunction (they slept until the sun rose). The best way to determine whether a word is operating as a preposition or an adverb is to try placing the word in a different part of the sentence and seeing if it is still grammatically acceptable. If it is, then the word in question is probably operating as an adverb. In the case of conjunctions, the rule is that if the clause that follows the word in question can stand independently as a sentence, then the word under examination is a conjunction, not a preposition.Position of PrepositionsPrepositions are often placed before the noun or pronoun to which they refer:The dog hid under the table.
She walked into town. This is not always the case, however, and prepositions may be positioned elsewhere, including at the end of a sentence. Conventional wisdom (which has its roots in the rules of Latin grammar) insists that prepositions should never be placed at the end of a sentence, but rigid observance of this rule and attempts to find an alternative can lead to the construction of much more clumsy sentences. A sensible compromise is to relax the rule where placing a preposition at the end of a sentence is the most natural solution, as in the following examples:There is nothing to worry about.
Go and see what the children are up to.
She is a difficult person to live with.
She gave the child a book to look at.
This was something we had all hoped for. In practice, most people find nothing objectionable about a sentence that ends with a preposition in spoken English but will generally seek out an alternative sentence structure that allows a preposition to precede its complement when writing formally. It should be noted that it is not incorrect to end a sentence with in, off, on, etc., when these words are operating as adverbs.Meanings of PrepositionsPreposition may also be categorized according to their meaning. Prepositions of space include many of the most frequently encountered prepositions. They may be subdivided into prepositions that refer to a position (across, at, in, on, etc.), prepositions that describe a position relative to another (above, among, away from, behind, below, between, in front of, next to, off, opposite, out of, under, etc.), prepositions of movement (across, along, down, over, past, through, under, up, etc.), prepositions of movement toward somewhere (in, into, on, onto, to, etc.), or prepositions of movement away from somewhere (away from, from, off, out of, etc.).Prepositions of time are another significant group. They variously refer to periods of time (during, for, since, throughout, until, etc.), to particular points in time (at, by, in, on, etc.), or to points in time relative to other points in time (after, before, etc.).Other groups of prepositions include prepositions of cause (at, because of, on account of, out of, etc.), prepositions of manner or means (as, by, like, with, without, etc.), prepositions of accompaniment (with, without, etc.), prepositions of support or of opposition (against, for, with, etc.), prepositions of possession (of, with, without, etc.), prepositions of concession (despite, in spite of, notwithstanding, etc.), and prepositions of addition or of exception (apart from, as well as, besides, but, except, etc.).Some prepositions belong to more than one category and mean different things according to the context. The preposition at, for instance, may be used as a preposition of space (arrive at the venue), as a preposition of time (leave at dusk), as a preposition of cause (offended at her remarks), as well as in other guises.In some cases several different prepositions can be equally legitimately attached to the same word and still mean the same thing. A particularly contentious example of this phenomenon is different, which can be variously combined with the prepositions from, to, and than. Many people insist that different from is the only correct form, though in reality there is no real case against the use of any of the alternatives.The international situation is different from what it was in the postwar years.
The international situation is different than it was in the postwar years. Many prepositions have become fixed as part of established phrases and idioms, which have widely familiar figurative meanings. These include such phrases as at arm's length, from bad to worse, start from scratch, through and through, and with open arms, among many more.
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