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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 5
Lesson 1: Introduction to prepositionsMeet the preposition
Prepositions are words that show how things relate to each other in time, place, or purpose. They can answer questions like when, where, and how. For example, prepositions can tell us if a box is under or over a hamster, when the hamster got a hat, or what the hat is for. Prepositions connect nouns and phrases in sentences.
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Ok…. so you might have to bare with me here because I am terrible at explaining questions.
I have always had this confusion with adverbs and prepositions. An adverb describes how something is done, where a preposition describes where something is. But what about this: " the leaves were buried under the snow". Is "under" a preposition or adverb?It could be where the leaves were buried or it could be describing "how" they were buried in a sense of space. And what about "we fell asleep under the stars". Is it the position you fell asleep or describing how it “is”?(50 votes)
it is a preposition because a noun is after "Buried". Remember an Adverb will stand alone but a preposition will always have a noun after it.(30 votes)
Can someone elaborate on the purpose of prepositions and why they show us where things are in space and time?(12 votes)
I recommend that you go back and do the lesson and all of its exercises again. The explanations are in the material. Failing that, I learned as a child that a preposition was a word that could put a mouse in relation to a hill. Try that first, but really, do the lesson in the curriculum.(12 votes)
Whats a Midlife Crisis(9 votes)
A midlife crisis is essentially when someone realizes they are halfway through their life and so they become reckless in order to compensate for the idea.(10 votes)
- Ok…. so you might have to bare with me here because I am terrible at explaining questions.
I have always had this confusion with adverbs and prepositions. An adverb describes how something is done, where a preposition describes where something is. But what about this: " the leaves were buried under the snow". Is "under" a preposition or adverb?It could be where the leaves were buried or it could be describing "how" they were buried in a sense of space. And what about "we fell asleep under the stars". Is it the position you fell asleep or describing how it “is”?(5 votes)
That might not be the best way to tell the difference between adverbs and prepositions. Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs. Prepositions (though this is a bit vague) show the relationship between two different words/phrases.
In your first example, “under” is a preposition because it shows the relationship between the verb phrase “were buried” and the noun “snow”.
“Under the snow” is a prepositional phrase. Make sure to check out the video on those if you haven’t already! This phrase is modifying the verb “buried” (specifying where the leaves were buried), so it’s an adverbial prepositional phrase. On the other hand, a prepositional phrase modifying a noun/noun phrase would be an adjectival prepositional phrase.
So, “under” is a preposition, but it’s part of the adverbial prepositional phrase “under the snow”.
It’s almost the same in your second example: The preposition “under” shows the relationship between the verb phrase “fell asleep” and the noun “stars”. Since the prepositional phrase “under the stars” modifies the verb phrase “fell asleep”, it’s specifically an adverbial prepositional phrase.
Does that help?(9 votes)
- i know what a preposition is, but is it a preposition?(4 votes)
- "it" is a pronoun.(9 votes)
Would "later" be a preposition?(5 votes)- It appears to me to me more "adverbial" than "prepositional". I recommend that you check with the good folks over at dictionary.com and see what they have to say.(5 votes)
- At1:56David used 5 adjectives that are big, old, silly, Abe Lincoln style and stove pipe before the top hat. But as stated by David in adjective order, a word shouldn't have more than 3 adjectives describing it, right ?(4 votes)
- This is a question of "style", not of grammar. So long as the sentence is grammatical, the number of adjectives used to modify a noun is limited only by the number of adjectives in the language. Too many may be "stylistically" awkward, but it is not grammatically incorrect.
Be careful when turning things into rules, both with language and with life.(6 votes)
why does when and then rhyme(7 votes)- Commas are never placed before parentheses, Commas and parentheses are often used together, but they serve separate purposes within a sentence.
Example: I Watered the green plant ( which i won at the fair) and walked outside.
Hope this helps please upvote!!(4 votes) 
1:39That escalated quickly(3 votes)
1:56
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hey grammarians, I want to talk about prepositions but before I do I'm going to
draw you a little hamster. Is it a hamster? Is it a tiny bear? Who knows? We're just going to call it a hamster, a little rodent type creature. Now I'm going to use
this critter to establish what prepositions are and what they do because in addition to
there being a hamster there's also going to be this box. So what prepositions do is they establish
relationships between stuff in place and time so it can show us where things are, when things
are, and how things are. Let me demonstrate. So, okay, using just
this hamster and this box we can move this box around and talk about how the hamster
relates to the box, right. So right now the box is under the hamster, let's write that down. Right, the box is under the hamster, that word under is a preposition because it's establishing
this relationship of where. It's connecting the box to the hamster. The box is under the hamster. But if I move it up like so, now we can say the box
is over the hamster. But let's get rid of the
box and let's imagine that our hamster is
having a midlife crisis. And our hamster decides
it's going to go out and it's going to splurge
on a fabulous, new hat, just an enormous top hat, a
little band in the center, just a big, old, silly, Abe Lincoln style, stove pipe, top hat. Now, another use for
prepositions is we can talk about when things are in relation to each other. So I could say, "Before
the hamster got the hat "and after the hamster got the hat." Right, and these words after and before express relationships in time. But another interesting thing
that prepositions can do is they can also help
express how something is or how it's, what it's
for, what its use is. So we could say that
this hat is for parties or is for wearing at parties. Oh, and at, also, is a preposition. This hat is for wearing at parties. So this is the how and
this part is the where. So what's the purpose of the hat? Well, we established
that with the word for, the hat is for wearing. The where is it supposed
to be worn, at parties, that's the where. We can also use a word like of to express the how relationship and
that's just sort of to say what belongs to whom. So we could say, "That is
the hat of the hamster." That is the hat of the hamster. So that's what prepositions are in the most basic sense they can help you figure out
what the relationship is between two things in time and space or how one thing relates to another. So you can figure out when, where, and how using prepositions. You can learn anything, David out.