Use
Of Prepositions
A preposition describes a relationship
between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or
"after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For
instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or
"between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show
how something is situated in relationship to something else. Prepositions are
nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional
phrases. Prepositional phrases can be made up of a million different words, but
they tend to be built the same: a preposition followed by
a determiner and an adjective or two, followed by a pronoun or noun
(called the object of the preposition). This whole phrase, in turn,
takes on a modifying role, acting as an adjective or an adverb,
locating something in time and space, modifying a noun, or telling when or
where or under what conditions something happened.
Example:
Prepositions
Of Time : at, on and in.
·
We use at to designate specific times
-
The bus arrives at 06.30 a.m.
-
The train is due at 08:30 p.m.
· We use on to designate specific days and dates
-
I will go to Bali on 25th of February.
-
My sister is coming on Friday.
·
We use in for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a
year.
-
My family moved to Jakarta in 2010.
-
He's going to quit in August.
Prepositions of Place : at, on, and in.
·
We use at for specific address.
-
I used to live at 51 Portland Street.
-
Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Road in Durham.
·
We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.
-
She house is on Boretz Road.
-
I used to live on Portland Street.
·
And we use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties, states,
countries, and continents).
-
I
used to live in Nottingham,
but now I live in Germany.
-
Durham is in Windham County.
Common Combination and
Preposition.
Most
phrasal verb is composed of two words: verb + particle. But some are made up of
three words, namely: particle + verb + preposition, which is known as
phrasal-prepositional verb. So phrasal-prepositional multi-word verb is a verb
which consists of a verb, particle and preposition.
Between particle (adverb that looks like a preposition) and phrasal preposition on-prepositional verb inseparable (inseparated) and the object is always to follow the multi-word verb is due to end in the form of a preposition (preposition always has an object). Because it is always followed by an object, all phrasal-prepositional verb is transitive.
Nouns
|
Preposition
|
Examples
|
age, attempt, point
|
at
|
18 is the age at which you
are allowed to vote.
Fisk is making his third attempt
at the world record.
|
need, reason, responsibility
|
for
|
What’s the reason for your
unhappiness?
Nobody seems to have responsibility
for the budget.
|
changes, differences, increase
|
in
|
Changes in society have meant
that young people leave home earlier.
There’s been a steady increase in the
value of the euro.
|
inquiry, investigation, research
|
into
|
The police inquiry into the
theft continues.
She did some research into the
causes of back pain.
|
cause, example, way
|
of
|
This is an example of international
collaboration.
We need to find another way of doing
things.
|
approach, reaction, response
|
to
|
My reaction to it all was to
try to forget it.
Her response to the
criticism was very strong.
|
