What is a Preposition?

By: Holly McReavy

A preposition is a word or phrase typically placed before a noun and indicates the relation of that noun to a verb, adjective, or other noun.

Richard Lanham's "Paramedic Method" consists of six steps to create clear and concise copy. The first step is to find and eradicate unnecessary prepositions. But, if you don't know how to spot a preposition, how can you eradicate it?

Mrs. Moore, my third-grade teacher, taught me to identify most prepositions by asking the question, "Can a cat do it to a box?" For example, a cat can go over, by, beyond, behind, around and through a box. This is a quick and easy way to single out most prepositions, but it doesn't work every time. A cat can't go like, subsequent to, or aside from a box, but these are all prepositions. To assist you, I've put together a list of the most common prepositions in English.

Four Types of Prepositions:

One-Syllable Prepositions
Two-Syllable Prepositions
Combined One-Syllable Prepositions
Combined Word Prepositions

17 One-Syllable Prepositions:

in	with	like
at	by	on
near	to	from
down	off	through
out	past	up
of	for

21 Two-Syllable Prepositions:

about	along	below	during
above	among	beneath	except
across	around	beside	inside
after	before	between	outside
against	behind	beyond	over
under

6 Combined One-Syllable Prepositions:

into	upon	without
onto	within	throughout

6 Combined-Word Prepositions:

according to	out of	on account of	aside from
prior to	owing to	by means of	inside of
in front of	because of	subsequent to	as to

For those of you that a picture speaks a thousand words, check out the article on the Visual Representation of Prepositions.

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