Preposition is a word that links a noun or pronoun to the other part of a sentence. It can also link a noun phrase, subject or object and general words that need to be connected to form a sentence. Prepositions are integral to sentence construction and hence pivotal to understand grammar.
What is Prepositional Phrase?
The term ‘prepositional phrase’ should be easy to understand. It is a phrase or a collection of words. Preposition is just one word. When two words or more serve the function of a preposition, those words are collectively called a prepositional phrase.
Prepositional phrases may contain two or more words and at least one preposition. It is unlikely that two prepositions may be needed but it is not rare. It must be noted that a prepositional phrase should not contain a verb and there should be no subject. There will be an object, there can be an adjective or the prepositional phrase itself can be the adverb or adjective.
The simple purpose of a prepositional phrase is to establish a literal sense and form a connection between the noun or pronoun with the rest of the sentence. A prepositional phrase becomes more important when it doubles up as an adjective or adverb, thus making the sentence more interesting.
Examples of Prepositional Phrase
• Take this simple sentence for instance: “This tiara with glitters is yours.”
• Now consider this sentence: “This tiara with golden glitters is yours.”
In the first case, ‘with glitters’ is the prepositional phrase. In the second case, ‘with golden glitters’ is the prepositional phrase. The second scenario is just more interesting although the message being conveyed is not very different and the sentence construction too remains the same. You would notice that the prepositional phrase doesn’t have any verb and it has no subject. It just is and makes sense on its own. Also, it makes complete sense when you read it in the larger context of the sentence.
There are more than a hundred prepositions in the English dictionary but the possibility of conceiving a prepositional phrase is much broader. That is primarily because of the words that you can insert in a prepositional phrase. For instance, you can come up with ‘down the stairs’, ‘up the hill’, ‘around the house’, ‘into the building’, ‘near the rigid door’, ‘within the pages’, ‘through the subway’, ‘in spite of’, ‘instead of’, ‘on account of’ and ‘because of’ among others.