Let’s review: Prepositions are words that connect nouns (or pronouns) to other words in a sentence.

Can you spot the preposition in the sentence below? Hint: Look for the word that introduces more information about, links to, or describes a relationship in the sentence. Look for a word that introduces where, what, or how something is taking or has taken place.

A man on the bus was snoring loudly.

The preposition on tells us where the man is snoring. The word on doesn’t tell us much by itself, but the words accompanying it do. The man is snoring on the bus. You see, a preposition, as important as it is, is never alone but needs other words to accomplish its task of adding information to the sentence. In particular, as mentioned in the introduction, a preposition needs an object (i.e., noun or pronoun).

An ant was crawling up the coach’s leg.

 

The preposition up is accompanied by the words the coach’s leg. In this case, the object of the preposition is the noun leg. (Remember that the object of a preposition is always a noun or a pronoun.) This simply means that leg—not the coach’s nose or the coach’s back—is where the ant is crawling. Thus, all prepositional phrases come with objects, and all objects provide information that relate to other ideas in the sentence.

 

The man with the black mustache left the restaurant quickly.

 

The noun mustache is the object of the preposition with and the whole phrase, with the mustache, tells us which man left the restaurant.

 

The plant on the windowsill was a present.

 

The noun windowsill is the object of the preposition on, and it tells us where the plant is located. Together, prepositions and nouns or pronouns form phrases called—you guessed it—prepositional phrases that look like the following:

To illustrate, let’s use the previous example sentence.

 

The plant on the windowsill was a present.

 

In this sentence, the preposition on and the object of the preposition, windowsill, form the prepositional phrase on the windowsill.

For the next exercise, use your knowledge of how prepositional phrases are formed to highlight them in each sentence below. Refer to the tables to help you spot the prepositions. Remember, you are looking for a group of words that contains a preposition, ends with an object (noun or pronoun), and tells you more about something in the sentence. The first sentence has been completed for you. You should find five prepositional phrases in the four remaining sentences. Click on the phrases to highlight them.

“Place” prepositions that tell where something happened
in	on	below	above
near	under	behind	over
onto	beside	into	across
around	among	between	opposite

“Time” prepositions that tell when something happened
at	in	during	before
after	since	by	for

Other prepositions
except	without	like	as	around

There are some special cases with objects of prepositions that we need to discuss before we leave this section. Occasionally, the object of a preposition is understood, meaning it is not stated. Have you ever heard this expression?

 

The doctor is in.

 

What’s really being said in this sentence is, “The doctor is in (his office).” His office is understood by many people who read or hear this sentence, but this type of object is pretty rare. Focusing on the prepositions and objects you can see or hear is probably your best bet.