PREPOSITION

Prepositions are words which show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun object and some other words in the sentence. They are always followed by nouns or pronouns.

SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS

Simple Prepositions are "short" or "little" words that express relationships including those of space, time, and degree.

Ex: at, by, from, over, till, upon, up, under, with, down

Definitions of some important simple prepositions

1. At (near, close to, with a purpose)

At is a common preposition with two main meanings.

At indicates a position in space.

At indicates a point in time.

‘at a position in space’

At is used for place or location, when we cannot use ON or IN.

Ex: My son is sitting at the table, doing their homework

At is used with expressions of clock time.

Ex: The concert starts at 6.30 on Staturday evening

At with Numbers

Ex: Now a days most people retire at the age of 60

At for towards (a goal of the action)

Ex: Throw a stone at the dog

2. By (Place, Means, After a Passive, and Time)

By as a word indicating place

By (preposition) referring to position means ‘near’ or ‘besite’ or ‘next to’

Ex:

We drove by your house
The bus was going by the supermarket as I came out
Way of doing something

By as a preposition indicating means, method

Ex: The thief must have left the building by the back door

3. Of (link of meaning)

Of indicates : belonging or connection

Ex:

A member of Parliament
The difficulty of learning English
4. Off

Off indicates : place or movement, separate, conneted, behaviour

Ex:

They shoveled the snow off the driveway
She went off her diet again
COMPOUND PREPOSITIONS

which are generally formed by prefixing a Preposition to a Noun, an Adjective or an Adverb.

Ex: above, around, behind, beside, towards, without, within

1. Above (heigher than)

Above indicates : at a higher place, at a higher level, earlier , negative action, expressions.

Ex:

The children in her class are all above average
Astronatus work a long way above the surface of the earth
2. Since (time up to now)

Towards indicates : length of time.

Ex: He has been ill since friday night

3. Within (inside the limits)

Within indicates : length of time, less than a distance, not outside a place, possible, not exceeding the limits of something.

Ex:

I live within three miles of the city centre
At last, the beach is within sight
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Prepositional phrases are groups of words containing prepositions. Remember that prepositions are words that indicate the relationships between various elements within a sentence, and you’ll never have difficulty identifying prepositional phrases.

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that lacks either a verb or a subject, and that functions as a unified part of speech. It normally consists of a preposition and a noun or a preposition and a pronoun.

Remember the following rules for prepositional phrases and you will find that using them becomes much easier.

Prepositional phrases always consist of two basic parts at minimum: the object and the preposition.
In formal English, prepositions are almost always followed by objects.
Adjectives can be placed between the prepositions and objects in prepositional phrases.
Prepositional phrases can act as adverbs or adjectives. When they are used as adjectives, they modify nouns and pronouns in the same way single-word adjectives do.
When prepositional phrases are used as adverbs, they at the same way single-word adverbs and adverb clauses do, modifying adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs.
Examples of Prepositional Phrases

The following sentences contain examples of prepositional phrases; the prepositional phrase in each sentence is italicized for easy identification.

The cupcake with sprinkles is yours.
The cupcake with colorful sprinkles is yours.
We climbed up the hill.
We climbed up the very steep hill.
List of Prepositional Phrases

Up the hill
Around the mulberry bush
Into the woods
With chopped nuts
Near a fast-flowing river
Within the book’s pages
Through the tunnel
In spite of
Instead of