English Prepositions

Prepositions

Multiple Choice

How many kinds of preposition are there?

• 2

• 3

• 4

• 5

For example ...

● (time) Let’s get an ice cream cone after

dinner.

● (space) I left my glasses beside the TV.

● (direction) Will you move the bed toward the

window?

● (similarity) The cloud looks like a frog.

● A prepositional phrase is a phrase that

begins with the preposition and ends with
the object of the preposition.

● For example:

○ After dinner, let’s get an ice cream cone.
○ I left my glasses beside the TV.
○ Will you move the bed toward the window?
○ The cloud looks like a frog.

Prepositional phrase

For example ...

● (time) Let’s get an ice cream cone after

dinner.

● (space) I left my glasses beside the TV.

● (direction) Will you move the bed toward the

window?

● (similarity) The cloud looks like a frog.

The trick
for identifying prepositions

● The bird flew ______ the clouds.
● If a word makes sense when you insert it in

the sentence above, it is almost always a
preposition.
○ For our purposes, this sentence will identify all

prepositions.

Object of the preposition

● Almost always the first noun or pronoun after

the preposition.

● Last word in the prepositional phrase.
● For example:

○ After dinner let’s get an ice cream cone.
○ I left my glasses beside the TV.
○ Will you move the bed toward the window?
○ The cloud looks like a frog.

Punctuating
prepositional phrases

● When a prepositional phrase is at the

beginning of a sentence, put a comma after
it if the phrase is longer than four words.
○ For my part I do not want peas.
○ Like a blinding lightning bolt, the electric cable

exploded.