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Prepositional Phrases

This document discusses dependent prepositions and prepositional phrases. It begins by explaining that dependent prepositions are prepositions that must follow specific verbs, nouns, or adjectives. It provides examples of dependent prepositions like "dressed in" and distinguishes them from phrasal verbs and infinitives. The document also notes that different words can take different prepositions to mean the same thing, like belong to, be the property of, and be owned by indicating possession. Finally, it defines prepositional phrases as groups of words beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun, and provides examples of prepositional phrases and the words they modify.

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Merlina Bacot
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71 views

Prepositional Phrases

This document discusses dependent prepositions and prepositional phrases. It begins by explaining that dependent prepositions are prepositions that must follow specific verbs, nouns, or adjectives. It provides examples of dependent prepositions like "dressed in" and distinguishes them from phrasal verbs and infinitives. The document also notes that different words can take different prepositions to mean the same thing, like belong to, be the property of, and be owned by indicating possession. Finally, it defines prepositional phrases as groups of words beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun, and provides examples of prepositional phrases and the words they modify.

Uploaded by

Merlina Bacot
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TTC - 2023

DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS

AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Trainee: Merlina Bacot

Trainer: Ana Belén Domínguez

Deadline: 9th August

EIS INSTITUTE - De La Paz 525, Ensenada (1925) - Buenos Aires, Argentina


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What is a Dependent Preposition?

Dependent prepositions are prepositions that depend on or must follow a particular


verb, noun, or adjective.

Said in another way: when you use certain verbs, nouns, or adjectives, they are
followed by a specific preposition (some use different prepositions for different
meanings, but we’ll get to that later…). In these situations, there is no point in asking
why. Sometimes there’s logic to the word combinations, but in most situations, there
is no none.

Let’s look at an example sentence:

Grunge musicians ditched the costumes and flamboyant hair styles of the 80s and
dressed in everyday style clothes and had unkempt hairstyles.

In the sentence above, in is a dependent preposition, and that combination is what


English speakers use to describe the clothes someone is wearing. We don’t say
dressed on, dressed down, dressed up, or any other combination in that instance.

Examples

● She dressed in red for our first date.

● To boost his confidence, Joe dressed in his favourite suit for the debate.

Dependent Prepositions vs. Phrasal Verbs vs. Infinitives

Though we don’t use dressed down or dressed up in the context of those sentences,
English speakers DO use those combinations. These combinations are known as
phrasal verbs and are NOT considered a dependent preposition.

The key difference between a phrasal verb and a preposition-dependent verb is that
a phrasal verb can be followed by an adverb, and the phrase has its own meaning.
Dependent prepositions do not create a new phrase.

In addition, when identifying dependent prepositions, remember that a preposition is


only followed by a noun or pronoun. This can be confusing when looking at
dependent prepositions like pleased with.

You may think, “But I thought you can use ‘pleased to’ as well.”

You can use pleased to, but it’s followed by a verb which makes it an infinitive. That’s
not a dependent preposition. It’s an adjective followed by an infinitive.

EIS INSTITUTE - De La Paz 525, Ensenada (1925) - Buenos Aires, Argentina


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Examples of Infinitives

● I’m pleased to meet you.

● She was pleased to see her mother.

● They were pleased to hear that she’s doing well.

Different Words… Different Prepositions…

Lastly, there are different dependent preposition combinations that mean the same
thing. For example, an object could belong to someone, be the property of
someone, and be owned by someone. All combinations imply possession or
ownership.

That’s the problem, there is a VERY long list of these combinations, and they don’t
always translate well into other languages.

Prepositional phrase

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends
with a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase (this noun, pronoun, or noun phrase is the
object of the preposition).

Prepositional phrases modify or describe nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and


verbs. They say something about the relationship between their object and the word
they describe/modify. Prepositional phrases can tell us when [time] or where
[location] something is or something happened. They can tell us the direction
something is or is moving/going. They can tell us something about the word or words
they describe.

In the phrase "the girl with the long hair" the prepositional phrase is "with the long
hair." It tells us something about "the girl."

In the phrase "the book on the table" the prepositional phrase is "on the table." It tells
us the location of "the book."

In the sentence "I run in the morning" the prepositional phrase is "in the morning"
and it modifies the verb "run" [it tells us when I run].

In the sentence "the keys are under the table" the prepositional phrase "under the
table" tells us where the keys are.

In the sentence "the play starts at five o'clock" the prepositional phrase "at five
o'clock" tells us when the play starts."

EIS INSTITUTE - De La Paz 525, Ensenada (1925) - Buenos Aires, Argentina


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In the phrase "they keys to the house" the prepositional phrase "to the house" tells
us about the keys [it tells us which keys they are/what the keys are for].

In the sentence "she looked around the living room for the cat" the prepositional
phrase "around the living room" tells us where she looked" and the prepositional
phrase "for the cat" tells us why she looked.

Below are more sentences with their prepositional phrases in italics and the word the
prepositional phrase describes in bold:

● I left the house before noon

● He walked through the park.

● She sat beneath the tree.

● The dog under the bed was scared.

● She lost the book with the red cover.

● They loved the gift from their cousin.

● We watched the people from afar.

● The teen slept until 1 pm.

Some common prepositions are above, across, after, against, along, among, around,
at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by, for, from, in, inside, into,
near, of, off, on, on top of, onto, outside, over, past, through, to, toward, under, until,
up, upon, with, within, and without.

EIS INSTITUTE - De La Paz 525, Ensenada (1925) - Buenos Aires, Argentina


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