7.1.Prepositions

Question 1

preposition?

Answer 1

1-establish a relationship with an adjacent noun or pronoun.
2-English + 100!
3- prepositional phrases can function as adjectives or adverbs.

Question 2

types of relationship

Answer 2

1-time
2-place
3-exception
4-addition
5-comparison or contrast
6-cause or effect
7-concession
8-condition
9-opposition
10-possession
11-movement

Question 3

Examples of prepositions

Answer 3

1-time: at, for, until, since, throughout
2-place: at, on, in around, upon
3-exception: but for, except, besides
4-addition: too, also, plus, as well as
5-comparison/contrast: than, like, unlike, between
6-cause/effect: because, thus, therefore, on account of
7-concession: despite, notwithstanding
8-condition: if, provided that, so long as
9-opposition: as opposed to, instead of, despite
10-possession: of, without
11-movement: to, from, towards, out of

Question 4

TIME

Answer 4

-ON for specific days or dates, i.e: ‘my birthday is on Wednesday’.
-‘AT’ is used for specific times: ‘I have work at 9:30’.
-‘IN’ non-specific times, such as ‘my mother was born in 1946’.
-‘FOR’ to describe a continuous duration, as
‘I studied for eighteen years’

Question 5

PLACE

Answer 5

Prepositions of place can also be ‘on’, ‘at’, or ‘in’.
-‘at’ is used for specific addresses, such as
‘I live at number one, Silk Street, London’.
-‘On’ is used for names of streets, roads, etcetera,
as in ‘I live on Silk Street’.
-‘in’ to designate general areas, such as suburbs, towns, and countries,
as in the sentence ‘I live in London’.
As you can see, the relationship of a preposition depends upon its context in a sentence.

Question 6

MOVEMENT

Answer 6

Prepositions of movement include the words ‘to’, ‘toward’, or ‘towards’,
such as in the sentences ‘I went to the castle gates’ and ‘don’t walk towards the light’.
Sometimes we don’t need to use prepositions to indicate movement.
For example, in the sentence ‘my sister went outside’, the preposition ‘outside’ functions as an adverb.

Question 7

Prepositions and NOUNS

Answer 7

Consider the sentence ‘we found plenty of errors’. Here, the noun ‘plenty’
connects with the preposition ‘of’ and another noun, ‘errors’, to form a prepositional phrase.
In ‘I have no stomach for horror films’, the noun ‘stomach’ connects with the preposition ‘for’
and the compound noun ‘horror films’.

Question 8

PREPOSITIONS AND ADJECTIVES

Answer 8

In ‘Sally is married to a wonderful partner’, the adjective ‘married’ combines with the preposition ‘to’. Likewise, ‘afraid’ and ‘of’ are combined in the sentence ‘I am afraid of the goblins’.

Question 9

PREPOSITIONS AND VERBS

Answer 9

Now consider the sentences ‘Heidi ran up a big hill’ and ‘Heidi ran up a big bill’.
In the first sentence, ‘ran’ is a verb that connects to ‘up’, a preposition.
‘Ran’ agrees with the subject ‘Heidi’, while ‘hill’ is the object of ‘up’.
However, in the second sentence, ‘ran up’ is a phrasal verb agreeing with the subject ‘Heidi’.
We covered phrasal verbs in week three. Remember that they are two- or three-word verbs that incorporate a main verb and a preposition.

Question 10

PARALLELISM

Answer 10

When two words or phrases require the same preposition, that preposition doesn’t have
to be repeated. This is called parallelism. For example, the sentence
‘I’m repulsed by and intrigued by that’ could be simply ‘I’m repulsed and intrigued by that’,
because both ‘repulsed’ and ‘intrigued’ require the same preposition in ‘by’.
Similarly, to say ‘in Brisbane, you can wear t-shirts in summer or in winter’, could just as well read ‘in Brisbane, you can wear t-shirts in summer or winter’.
Deciding which preposition to omit depends on whether it comes before or after its corresponding object.
When words or phrases require different prepositions, you cannot omit either.
Take these examples: ‘It is wise to listen to and learn from your lecturer’,
and ‘would you like to swim in the pool or at the beach?’
None of these prepositions can be omitted as we neither ‘listen from’ our lecturer, nor ‘swim in’ the beach.

Question 11

DIFFERENCES USING PREPOSITIONS

Answer 11

There can be idiomatic differences in the way that prepositions are used.
Take, for example, the word ‘knack’, meaning the skill or ability to do something easily and well.
You could have a knack ‘for’ remembering faces, a knack ‘of’ making people comfortable,
or a knack ‘to’ using a corkscrew.
In each case, the preposition changes. You must always be sure to use the correct preposition.