Preposition

A preposition is a word which is used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to express its relationship with some other word in the sentence. 

I bought a book for you (“for” is a preposition that creates relation with pronoun “you”)

See some examples given below –

She looked at me. The cow lives on grass. The rice of Bangladesh is nice. It’s 5 o’clock by my watch. He came from New York.

Here are the most commonly used prepositions:

Aboard	About	Above	Across
After	Against	Along	Among
Around	As	At	Before
Behind	Below	Beneath	Besides
Besides	Between	Beyond	But
By	Concerning	Despite	Down
During	Except	For	From
In	Inside	Into	Like
Near	Of	Off	On
Onto	Opposite	Out	Outside
Over	Past	Since	Through
Throughout	Till	To	Toward
Under	Underneath	Until	Up
Upon	With	Within	Without

“But” is a preposition only when it can be replaced by the word “except”. So in the sentence, “All but Teddy went inside,” “but” is a preposition since it connects “All and Teddy” and can be replaced by the word “except”.

Classification of Prepositions:

1)     Simple Preposition

2)     Double Preposition

3)     Compound Preposition

4)     Phrase Preposition

5)     Participle Preposition

6)     Disguised Preposition

Elaboration in details:

1)     Simple Preposition: The simple preposition mainly means single words – at, by, with, of, for, off, through, after etc

2)     Double Preposition: This type of preposition is made of two prepositions such as (Double Preposition = Preposition + Preposition). See some examples given below –

The machine is out of date (“out of” is made of “out + of” and it’s a double preposition)

The cow lives upon grass (“upon” is made of “up + on” is a double preposition)

3)     Compound Preposition: The compound preposition is made if any simple preposition is set before the noun, adjective and adverb. See some examples below –

Behind = by (=be) + hind.              Beside = by (=be) + side.

Along = on (=a) + long.                  Beyond = by (=be) + yond.

Before = by (=be) + fore.               Between = by (=be) + tween.

About = a (=a) + by (=b) + out.

Note: the preposition “by” changed into “be” and the preposition “on” changed into “a”.

4)     Phrase Preposition: Do you know the meaning of phrase? “A phrase is a group of words which has no subject and finite verb and acts as a small element of a sentence”. Therefore, if the phrase is used as preposition is called phrase preposition. See the examples –

There is a pond in front of our house (in front of = phrase preposition and its meaning is “before”)

I could not pass the exam in spite of my hard work (in spite of = phrase preposition)

We worked at home instead of going to school (instead of = phrase preposition)

As for myself, I know nothing about it (“as for” is a phrase preposition and its meaning is “about”)

5)     Participle Preposition: Some present participle (verb + ing) and past participle acted as preposition is called participle preposition.

Regarding this matter I know nothing (“regarding” means “about” but it’s a present participle)

The Padma flows past our village (“past” means “by”, it’s a past participle) 

6)     Disguised Preposition: Sometimes “a” and “o” used in place of the preposition “on” and “of”, in this way if it’s called disguised preposition.

The poor man went on begging

                        Or

The poor man went a-begging (“on begging” = a-begging)

Now it’s 8 o’ clock (= of clock) in the morning. (o’ (=of) is a disguised preposition)

The hunter decided to go a-hunting.

Adverb or Preposition:

The difference between a preposition and an adverb is that an adverb answers the questions, Where? When? How? To what extent? by itself. Both common and compound prepositions need more than just themselves to answer the same questions:

He fell down. (“Down” is an adverb because it takes only one word to tell where he fell.)

He fell down the stairs. (“Down” is a preposition because it takes more than a single word to tell where he fell.)

Trey walked aboard. (“Aboard” is an adverb because it takes only one word needed to tell where Trey walked.)

Trey walked aboard the ship. (“Aboard” is a preposition because it takes more than one word to tell where Trey walked.)

Know when a word is a preposition and when it is an adverb. In the sentence “The captain walked aboard,” aboard is an adverb because it does not start a prepositional phrase. In the sentence “The captain walked aboard the ship,” aboard is a preposition that begins the prepositional phrase, aboard the ship.