Language Facts & Figures: Prepositions

Our latest roundup of facts, figures, and wild hunches focuses on the preposition--one of the traditional parts of speech. Prepositions are members of a closed word class--which means that few new prepositions ever enter the language. In fact, there are only about 100 of them in English, so if you ever catch sight of a new one, please let us know.

Here are brief answers to just a few of the questions we've received about prepositions.

• Are all prepositions (above, in, over, with, and so on) single words?
  No. In addition to the simple (one-word) prepositions you refer to, several word groups (such as "in addition to" and "such as") perform the same grammatical function. These word groups are called complex prepositions.



• What exactly is a prepositional phrase?
  Prepositions aren't in the habit of standing alone. A word group with a preposition at the head followed by an object (or complement) is called a prepositional phrase. The object of a preposition is typically a noun or a pronoun: He put the horse before the cart.



• What do prepositional phrases do?
  Prepositional phrases usually tell where, when, or how. A prepositional phrase may do the work of an adjective and modify a noun: The student in the back row began to snore loudly. It may also function as an adverb and modify a verb: Buster fell asleep during class.



• Are we still expected to follow that old rule about never ending a sentence with a preposition?
  That's a "rule" (based on the etymology of "preposition" and a false analogy to Latin) that you just don't have to put up with. As long ago as 1926, Henry Fowler dismissed it as "a cherished superstition" ignored by major writers from Shakespeare to Thackeray. In fact, he said, "the remarkable freedom enjoyed by English in putting its prepositions late and omitting its relatives is an important element in the flexibility of the language" (A Dictionary of Modern English Usage).



• Can a preposition ever function as another part of speech?
  Yes. Certain prepositions (after, as, before, since, until) serve as subordinating conjunctions when they're followed by a clause:

  You better get out of town before sundown. (preposition)
  
  Too many people run out of ideas long before they run out of words. (conjunction)

  Some prepositions (including about, across, around, before, down, in, on, out, and up) also moonlight as adverbs (sometimes called prepositional adverbs or adverbial particles):

  Beth walked up the driveway. (preposition followed by the object)
  
  Beth looked up. (prepositional adverb modifying the verb looked)

• Why is it that English prepositions are often baffling to students of English as a second language?
  We'll turn this one over to Ben Yagoda, author of When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It (Broadway, 2007): "Prepositions are insane! Sometimes they make no sense--it's just a case of memorizing them."

To read past editions of Language Facts & Figures, please visit the Grammar & Composition Forum.

More About Prepositional Phrases:

• Identifying Prepositional Phrases
• Adding Prepositional Phrases to the Basic Sentence
• Arranging Prepositional Phrases
• Sentence Building With Prepositional Phrases