Many students who are learning English find prepositions very difficult to learn. Actually they are not!

A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how something is situated in relationship to something else. Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases can be made up of a million different words, but they tend to be built the same: a preposition followed by a determiner and an adjective or two, followed by a pronoun or noun (called the object of the preposition). This whole phrase, in turn, takes on a modifying role, acting as an adjective or an adverb, locating something in time and space, modifying a noun, or telling when or where or under what conditions something happened.

Consider the professor's desk and all the prepositional phrases we can use while talking about it.

You can sit before the desk (or in front of the desk). The professor can sit on the desk (when he's being informal) or behind the desk, and then his feet are under the desk or beneath the desk. He can stand beside the desk (meaning next to the desk), before the desk, between the desk and you, or even on the desk (if he's really strange). If he's clumsy, he can bump into the desk or try to walk through the desk (and stuff would fall off the desk). Passing his hands over the desk or resting his elbows upon the desk, he often looks across the desk and speaks of the desk or concerning the desk as if there were nothing else like the desk. Because he thinks of nothing except the desk, sometimes you wonder about the desk, what's in the desk, what he paid for the desk, and if he could live without the desk. You can walk toward the desk, to the desk, around the desk, by the desk, and even past the desk while he sits at the desk or leans against the desk.

All of this happens, of course, in time: during the class, before the class, until the class, throughout the class, after the class, etc. And the professor can sit there in a bad mood [another adverbial construction]........................

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.

In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.

A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. 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."

Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a preposition:

The children climbed the mountain without fear.

In this sentence, the preposition "without" introduces the noun "fear." The prepositional phrase "without fear" functions as an adverb describing how the children climbed.

There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was defeated.

Here, the preposition "throughout" introduces the noun phrase "the land." The prepositional phrase acts as an adverb describing the location of the rejoicing.

The spider crawled slowly along the banister.

The preposition "along" introduces the noun phrase "the banister" and the prepositional phrase "along the banister" acts as an adverb, describing where the spider crawled.

The dog is hiding under the porch because it knows it will be punished for chewing up a new pair of shoes.

Here the preposition "under" introduces the prepositional phrase "under the porch," which acts as an adverb modifying the compound verb "is hiding."

The screenwriter searched for the manuscript he was certain was somewhere in his office.

Similarly in this sentence, the preposition "in" introduces a prepositional phrase "in his office," which acts as an adverb describing the location of the missing papers.

Yes/no questions are created by moving the verb BE to the beginning of the sentence. WH-questions are formed by moving the verb BE, and then adding the WH- word. Here are the rules:

English4all.org is an organization teaching English online free of charge. You don't have to register or pay for anything on English4all.org all you need to do
is be online and find us on the web!

If you gonna study or teach English you know this: English can be difficult sometimes
or confusing! Should you use 'accept' or 'except'? Should you choose British English
or American English? Perhaps you find English spelling rules, irregular verbs, and
phrasal verbs
confusing. Here is some help!

Learning English is a skill which you can improve by yourself! Here are some suggestions for you to improve; Ask these questions to yourself: Why do I need to learn English? Where will I use English? How long will it take to learn English? How much time do I need to learn English? Do I have money to spend on learning English? How much am I ready to pay to learn English?

When you have answered the questions above then you are ready to start walking this long road! Firstly make a plan to set aside time to learn a little every day or week to achieve your goal and then work on hard and never change it.

Your goal is obviously to Learn English as soon as possible! Here are some hints and tips to help you on your way:

• Study hard
• Join a course
• Read read read (English story books)
• Try and learn at least one new word everyday
• Watch English speaking movies, listen to music, follow episodes like Prison Break
• And never give up!
• And visit English4all.org regularly!

Some other tips to help you improve your English?

• Visit England
• Or any other English speaking country or area within your own country.

English4all.org is an organization teaching English online free of charge. You don't have to register or pay for anything on English4all.org all you need to do
is be online and find us on the web!

If you gonna study or teach English you know this: English can be difficult sometimes
or confusing! Should you use 'accept' or 'except'? Should you choose British English
or American English? Perhaps you find English spelling rules, irregular verbs, and
phrasal verbs
confusing. Here is some help!

Learning English is a skill which you can improve by yourself! Here are some suggestions for you to improve; Ask these questions to yourself: Why do I need to learn English? Where will I use English? How long will it take to learn English? How much time do I need to learn English? Do I have money to spend on learning English? How much am I ready to pay to learn English?

When you have answered the questions above then you are ready to start walking this long road! Firstly make a plan to set aside time to learn a little every day or week to achieve your goal and then work on hard and never change it.

Your goal is obviously to Learn English as soon as possible! Here are some hints and tips to help you on your way:

• Study hard
• Join a course
• Read read read (English story books)
• Try and learn at least one new word everyday
• Watch English speaking movies, listen to music, follow episodes like Prison Break
• And never give up!
• And visit English4all.org regularly!

Some other tips to help you improve your English?

• Visit England
• Or any other English speaking country or area within your own country.