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The machine is out of date (“out of” is made of “out + of” and it’s a double preposition)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

Adjectives Part Two

Indefinite numeral adjective: When the numeral adjective all, some, many, enough, several, few, sundry, no, etc cannot express exact number, is called indefinite number adjective. See the difference given below –

           

“We have seen “all, some, enough” used as quantitative adjective. So it might be questioned that what does “all” denotes? when “all” is quantitative and in the same way, what does it denote when “all” is numeral. Therefore, see the difference below”

[All (any other Adj) + Uncountable Noun] (In this way, if “all” is used, it’s quantitative adjective)

[All (any other Adj) + Countable Noun] (In this way, if “all” is used, it’s numeral adjective)

1)     Pronominal Adjective: When a pronoun is used before any noun and acted as adjective, is called pronominal adjective because this type of adjective derived from pronoun. And bear in mind, pronoun is usually used alone but as an adjective when the pronoun is acted, must be setup before noun. Here some examples –

“This is a book. That is a dog” (This/that is demonstrative pronoun generally used alone in the sentence) but see some other examples –

“This book is mine. That lion is mad”  

                                                noun                      noun

In the above last two sentences, (this/that) is used before the noun acts as an adjective and modifies nouns (book/lion)

Classes of Pronominal Adjectives:

a)     Demonstrative Adjective: (Demonstrative Pronoun + Noun) in this way if the pronouns are used, they are acted as demonstrative adjective. See the table –

Demonstrative Pronoun	Demonstrative Adjective	Example	Sentence
This That These Those	this + noun that + noun these + noun (pl.) those + noun (pl.)	this man that man these things those cows	I know this man I saw that man last day She bought these things Those cows are grassing

b)     Distributive Adjective: When distributive pronoun is used as adjective is called distributive adjective. See bold words in the below –

Each of them went there.

There are two pens here; you can take either.

Either of the two brothers has told this.

  

See the table –

Distributive Pronoun	Distributive Adjective	Example	Sentence
Each Every Either Neither	Each + noun Every + noun Either + noun Neither + noun	Each boy Every mother Either bank Neither pen	Each boy was present Every mother loves her child There are tresses on either bank There are two pens but neither will do

Note: “every” can only be used as an adjective but not as a pronoun. Such as –

Every of them was present (incorrect)

Each of them was present (correct)

Or Everyone of them was present.

c)     Interrogative Adjective: When interrogative pronouns are used as the adjective is called an interrogative adjective. See some examples given below –

What do you want?

Which is better?

(What/which is pronoun but not adjective because they are used alone)

[what/which + Noun] in this way if they are used is called interrogative adjective.

Interrogative pronoun	Interrogative adjective	Examples	Sentence
What	What+noun	What color	What color do you like most?
Which	Which+noun	Which man	Which man is your uncle?

d)     Possessive Adjective: “this is my pen” and “we love our country” in these two sentences “my”/“our” is possessive pronoun and they also denote a relation with “pen” and “house” and therefore, in this way, if any possessive pronoun used and modifies the noun through having a relation is called possessive adjective.

 

e)     Relative Adjective: Can you remember relative pronoun? If you cannot then Click Here…

“This is the book which you gave me” 

In this sentence “which” is a relative adjective because it modifies noun (book)
The words “a, an, and the” are the most frequently used as adjectives in the sentence. Although they are sometimes referred to as articles or noun markers, they are really adjectives, plain and simple. Use a before words that start with a consonant sound (a joking man or a lucky lottery player) and an before words that start with a vowel sound (an hour’s wait or an interesting story).

There are several types of adjectives:

a)     A proper adjective is formed from a proper noun. See the below

Italian bread, Herculean strength, Midas touch, Canadian sunset

b)     A compound adjective is a word composed of two or more words. Sometimes these words are hyphenated.

“This is an out-of-date house, I want a five-year-old boy”

Landmark decision, Black-and-blue mark, Hometown hero

c)     Emphasizing Adjective: “Is this your own cat?”, “He will come this very day”, “I want this very pen” (in these sentences own, and very are possessive adjectives because they are used to insist or emphasize.