Prepositional Phrases

CHAPTER -10

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any words that modify the object.

Eg. Mother is going out with a cute baby.

['with a cute baby' becomes a prepositional phrase and it has a complement 'baby' and a word (adjective) 'cute' which modifies the noun or complement, 'baby']

Most of the time, a prepositional phrase modifies a verb or a noun.

There are three kinds of prepositional phrases:

Adverbial prepositional phrases

Adjectival prepositional phrases

I. Prepositional phrases behaving like nouns.

Prepositional Phrases As Adverbsds

Here are some more prepositional phrases functioning as adverbs:

Example

Lee raised his small mackerel (marine fish) with utmost pride. (adverb of manner)

Before the war, Chris played football for Barnstoneworth United. (adverb of time)

Manjunadhan is tired from the hike. (adverb of reason)

Madhumathi lives in that village. (adverb of place)

I live near the stadium. (adverb of place)

She speaks with notable enthusiasm. (adverb of manner)

II. Prepositional Phrases as Adjectives

Here are some more prepositional phrases functioning as adjectives:

Example

Please buy the scarf with dots. (dotted scarf)

The man on the radio has a boring voice. (describes the man)

Give me one of the brown ones. (may be a brown cake) (describes the pronoun, 'one')

Do you mean that boy in the corner? (corner boy)

I know the policeman with the radio. (describes the policeman)

III. Prepositional Phrases with nouns:

Example

They first met at a wedding. (preposition + noun phrase)

She was taken ill during the trip. (preposition + noun phrase)

Would you like to come with me please? (preposition + pronoun)

IV. Prepositions and their complements:

Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and the words which follow it. (a complement).

From there, it'll take you about half an hour to our house. (preposition + adverb)

Until quite recently, no one knew about his paintings. (preposition + adverb phrase)

She's decided on doing a Spanish language course. (preposition + _ing clause)

It's a machine for making oil. (preposition + _ing clause)

If you can wait until after my meeting with Sanadhanan, we can talk then. (preposition + prepositional phrase)

We were really surprised at what they spoke. (preposition + wh_clause)

We can put an adverb before a preposition to modify it. This applies mainly to prepositions of time or place (above, before, far, deep, down, opposite):

They've moved far into the country.

They left the party just before us.

You can't miss it. His office is almost opposite the coffee shop.

V. How do you write a prepositional phrase?

At the minimum, a prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause, the "object" of the preposition. The object of the preposition will often have one or more modifiers to describe it.

Example

The witch sat on her broom.

("On" is a preposition, "broom" is the object of the preposition, and

"her" is the modifier.)

Easy Examples of Prepositional Phrases

A singer with passion

A town near London

Keep in time.

He acts without thinking.

VI. The Function of Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases function as either adjectives modifying nouns or adverbs modifying verbs.