Transcript prepositional phrases

PREPOSITIONAL
PHRASES
Prepositions
A preposition describes a relationship between other words in
a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather
meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance,
when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between"
or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how
something is situated in relationship to something else.
So Many Prepositions
Consider the teacher’s desk and all the prepositional phrases we can use while
talking about it.
You can sit before the desk (or in front of the desk). The teacher can sit on the
desk (when he's being informal) or behind the desk, and then his feet are under
the desk or beneath the desk. He can stand beside the desk (meaning next to the
desk), before the desk, between the desk and you, or even on the desk (if he's
really strange). If he's clumsy, he can bump into the desk or try to walk through the
desk (and stuff would fall off the desk). Passing his hands over the desk or resting
his elbows upon the desk, he often looks across the desk and speaks of the desk
or concerning the desk as if there were nothing else like the desk. Because he
thinks of nothing except the desk, sometimes you wonder about the desk,
what's in the desk, what he paid for the desk, and if he could live without the desk.
You can walk toward the desk, to the desk, around the desk, by the desk, and
even past the desk while he sits at the desk or leans against the desk.
All of this happens, of course, in time: during the class, before the class, until the
class, throughout the class, after the class, etc. And the professor can sit therein a
bad mood [another adverbial construction].
Those words in bold font are all prepositions.
Prepositions of Time: at, on, and in
The train is due at 12:15 p.m.
My brother is coming on Monday.
She likes to jog in the morning
Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in
Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Road in Wilmington.
Her house is on Boretz Road.
She lives in Wilmington.
Prepositions of Location: in, at, and on and No Preposition
IN
(the) bed*
the bedroom
the car
(the) class*
the library*
school*
AT
class*
home
the library*
the office
school*
work
ON
the bed*
the ceiling
the floor
the horse
the plane
the train
NO
PREPOSITION
downstairs
downtown
inside
outside
upstairs
uptown
What is a PHRASE?
• A phrase is a group of words that acts as
a single part of speech (like an adjective)
that does not contain both a subject and
a verb.
It is a fragment of a sentence, so it
cannot express an idea on its own.
• After midnight
• on the roof
• with a Ukranian bullfighter
What’s a PHRASE?
Egor's mother was dancing.
• After midnight, Egor's mother
was dancing.
• After midnight, Egor's mother
was on the roof dancing.
• After midnight, Egor's mother was
on the roof dancing with a
Ukranian bullfighter.
What’s a PHRASE?
Felcity stared.
• Surprised by the intensity of her
disgust, Felicity stared.
• Surprised by the intensity of her
disgust, Felicity stared at the cockroach.
• Surprised by the intensity of her
disgust, Felicity stared at the cockroach
scurrying across her omelet.
Prepositions
• Most prepositions
are difficult to
define: of, in, off,
by, through,
between, etc.
Most of the
time,
prepositions
indicate
location
Prepositional Phrases
• Prepositional Phrases function as
adjectives or adverbs in a sentence.
• They are formed like this:
preposition + optional modifiers +
noun, pronoun, or gerund (running)
• Example: over the rainbow
(over = preposition) + (the = article)
+ (rainbow = noun)
Prepositional Phrases
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In the beginning
Before the fall
After the brutal fight
At school
Down the aisle
Across the street
Inside your ear
Outside the house
Between two girls
By chewing
Behind the scenes
On the wooden table
By the sea
Under the couch
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Around the bend
Down in the sand trap
Into the dark woods
Against the wind
Near the mouse
Through the tunnel
To school
Like Larry’s uncle
Except my friend
Over the rainbow
Up the rough river
Without a paddle
With anger
Toward the door
Notice – prepositional phrases usually
end with a noun or pronoun, which is
the OBJECT of the preposition
• After the brutal fight
• Inside your wax-filled ear
• Outside the blue house
• Between two girls
• Beside you
• With me
A prepositional phrase
can open a sentence
• Without help, Janie wrote
this message to her teacher.
Notice: the
comma
offsets the
prepositional
phrase
A prepositional phrase
can close a sentence
•We ate corn dogs and
drank root beer floats
after the baseball game.
Notice
NO
comma
is
needed
A prepositional phrase can
split the main subject and verb
•All the puppies, except
those that had been
trained, pooped
everywhere!
Notice: commas
offset the
prepositional
phrase
A sentence can have consecutive
prepositional phrases
•We saw this
holiday tree
1
in the mall,
2
on some
guy’s head.
A sentence can have consecutive
prepositional phrases
1
2
• In grandma’s attic, under the
3
window, in a cardboard box
4
between two garbage cans, we
found these scary Santa Clauses.