MEETING 14

Preposition
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to
other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the
preposition introduces is called the object of the
preposition.

A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or

logical relationship of its object to the rest of the
sentence as in the following examples:
– The book is on the table.
– The book is beneath the table.
– The book is leaning against the table.
– The book is beside the table.
– She held the book over the table.
– She read the book during class.
A prepositional phrase can function as a noun, an
adjective, or an adverb.

The most common prepositions are;

about, above, across, after, against, along,
among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath,
beside, between, beyond, but, by, despite, down,
during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near,
of, off, on, onto, out, outside, over, past, since,
through, throughout, till, to, toward, under,
underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, and
without.
 Preposition of Time
Prepositions of time:

at for a PRECISE TIME

at two o'clock

in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS

in an hour; in January; in 1992

on for DAYS and DATES

on Wednesday
 Preposition of Place
Prepositions of place:

at We use at for specific addresses.

John lives at 55 Boretz Road in Durham.

on We use on to designate names of streets, avenues,

etc.
John’s house is on Boretz Road

in We use in for the names of land-areas (towns,

counties, states, countries, and continents).
John lives in Durham.
A preposition is followed by a "noun". It is never followed
by a verb.

NOUN:
noun (dog, money, love)
proper noun (name) (Bangkok, Mary)
pronoun (you, him, us)
noun group (my first job)
gerund (swimming)
A preposition cannot be followed by a verb. If we
want to follow a preposition by a verb, we must
use the "-ing" form which is really a gerund or
verb in noun form.

Examples:
The food is on the table.
The food is subject + verb, On is preposition , Table is
noun

She lives in Japan

She lives is subject + verb, In is preposition , Japan is
noun
 Fill in the missing preposition
1. Andrew finished high school ………….... 1997.
2. Does it snow here……………….. the winter?
3. ………..… tomorrow morning, I will have to get up early.
4. She will graduate from university ……………. May.
5. Are you going to visit your family
……………. Christmas?
6. I hate getting out of bed…………….. cold mornings!
7. Did your cousin get married …………….. last spring?
8. My birthday is …………….. the twelfth of September.
9. Jane started learning English …………... 1998.
10. ……….
yesterday afternoon, we went to the library to study