Prepositions are a funny thing — not “haha” funny like your favorite stand-up comedian, but funny in the sense of wondering what they are and why you need them. A preposition isn’t a noun or verb; however, it adds plenty of context and nuance to a sentence. Prepositions can be a two-letter word or lengthy in the form of a prepositional phrase. But these vague descriptions probably don’t help to clear things up, so let’s review exactly what prepositions are and how they’re used. You’ll find that these words and phrases have been helping you communicate more clearly in almost everything you say.
The secret to understanding prepositions lies in the word itself: pre-position. Each one indicates the position of something or someone in relation to something else. Common examples include in, on, above, underneath, through, across, with, near, and between. Prepositional phrases combine one of these words with a noun or pronoun: for example, “in Paris” or “above her.” Prepositional phrases on their own aren’t complete sentences, however, and you still need to add a subject or verb to flesh things out: “The dog was lost in Paris”and “the light flickered above her” are complete clauses.
Prepositions can replace certain parts of speech. If you say, “The lollipop in the jar is for Barry,” then the prepositional phrase “in the jar” is being used to describe a noun, thus placing it in the position of an adjective. Let’s put a true adjective in that example. “The red lollipop is for Barry” — notice that “red” is serving the same purpose as “in the jar” in this context. We can do the same thing with an adverb. In the example sentence “The man danced across the room,” we could replace the prepositional phrase “across the room” with any number of adverbs to describe how he danced, including “vigorously” or “badly.”
Why would we do this? It’s the same reason we use prepositions at all: They provide context and nuance to communication by giving more information about something’s position. Maybe you want to tell someone the color of Barry’s lollipop, or maybe you want to let the babysitter know where it is located for an after-dinner treat. Thanks to the flexibility of language and the multiple parts of speech, you get to decide.
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