As with many parts of a sentence, how a preposition is used can have a drastic impact on the meaning, style or tone of a sentence in effect leading to comprehension issues for a given audience.
Function of a Preposition
A preposition is the part of a sentence which directly impacts how a noun or pronoun relates to the rest of the sentence. Although they are small little words such as "in", "on" or "of", they play a large role in proper sentence structure.
The word or phrase introduced by a preposition is called the object of the preposition. This can be difficult for younger students to grasp and understand however using simple examples most will catch on with repeated practice.
How to Use a Preposition
The preposition is often an indicator of the time or space relationship between the object and the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:
- The cat is on the bed.
- The cat is underneath the bed.
- The cat is lying against the bed.
- The cat is beside the bed.
- He held the cat over the bed.
- She held the cat during the movie.
In each of the sentences above a preposition shows the location of the cat either in terms of time or space.
More Examples of Preposition Usage
The highlighted word in each example below is a preposition.
Example:The girl walked across the beam without fear.
In the example above the preposition without is introducing the noun "fear." "Without fear" is a prepositional phrase because the two words combined work as an adverb telling the reader how the girl walked.
Example: People rejoiced throughout the land when Barack Obama was elected president.
Above, the preposition "throughout" introduces the noun phrase "the land" and the prepositional phrase is treated like an adverb, which described where the rejoicing is occurring.
When to Avoid Using a Preposition
At one time it was a hard and fast rule to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, and while the rules seem to have softened in recent years, if the sentence can be rearranged it should be as long as it still sounds all right.
Fair: Notice the ease the girl goes over the vault with.
Better: Notice the ease with which the girl goes over the vault.
Learning the many parts of sentence structure can be difficult for students both young and old, however if they are taught early on, or practice through writing, sentence structure will become almost second nature to most.
For more great grammar tips read these other Suite101 articles, How to Use Abbreviations, Children and Grammar and Grammar Help: Homophones.
References:
Elliott, Rebecca. Painless Grammar. NY: Barron's, 2006.
Karrie Emms - As a single mother of two beautiful children, Colton (11) and Jesslynn (9) Karrie has a passion for writing that began at the tender age ...
