A preposition is a word that shows the location or the position of an object or an action.
A preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase.
A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition.
The object of the preposition is always a noun.
That’s a lot of information to absorb and understand, so let’s take a look at some examples.
Prepositions: to, from, in, inside, out, outside, up, down, over, under, through, into, by, beside, around, into, at
Notice that each of these words shows a location or a position.
To make a prepositional phrase, we begin with a preposition and end with a noun that is called the object of the preposition.
Look at these examples:
at home
to the park
from the store
in the closet
inside the car
out the door
outside my bedroom window
up the tree
down the river
Each prepositional phrase shows a location or a position of an object.
The bolded word in each phrase above is the preposition.
The underlined word in each phrase above is the object of the preposition.
Each phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun. (object of the preposition)
Now we can put these prepositional phrases into sentences, like this:
I told you I would be at home today.
Yesterday I walked to the park.
Mom drove home from the store.
I keep my clothes in the closet.
Put your suitcase inside the car.
The dog ran out the door.
I can see birds outside my bedroom window.
A squirrel ran up the tree.
We floated down the river.
A preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with an object of the preposition (a noun). The shortest prepositional phrase is two words – preposition and object of the preposition. You can make a prepositional phrase longer by adding adjectives between the preposition and the object.