Meaning & use
prepositional phrase
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A group of words made of a preposition and the noun or pronoun that follows it, giving details such as where, when or how.
Grammar: Countable: underline the prepositional phrase in each sentence.
Patterns
- a prepositional phrase of time
- a prepositional phrase of place
In the sentence 'The cat sat on the mat', 'on the mat' is a prepositional phrase.
A prepositional phrase can tell you when something happened, such as 'after lunch'.
Students underlined the prepositional phrase in each sentence.
Word forms
| plural | prepositional phrases |
|---|
Common combinations
- underline the prepositional phrase
- Underline the prepositional phrase in this sentence.
- begin with a prepositional phrase
- Many sentences begin with a prepositional phrase.
- adverbial prepositional phrase
- 'In the morning' is an adverbial prepositional phrase.
- object of the prepositional phrase
- The noun is the object of the prepositional phrase.
- identify a prepositional phrase
- Learners must identify a prepositional phrase in the text.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adverbial phrase
- An adverbial phrase describes any group acting as an adverb, and a prepositional phrase can be one of these.
- adjectival phrase
- An adjectival phrase describes a noun and may or may not contain a preposition.
- phrase
- Phrase is the general word for any word group, so it is less specific than prepositional phrase.
Word family
- preposition noun
- a word such as in, on or at that links nouns
- prepositional adjective
- relating to prepositions
- phrase noun
- a group of words forming a unit
- postpositional adjective
- relating to words placed after the noun
Commonly confused: prepositional phrase or preposition? prepositional phrase or clause?
prepositional phrase vs preposition
A preposition is a single word like on, while a prepositional phrase is the whole group such as on the table.
prepositional phrase vs clause
A clause has a subject and verb, but a prepositional phrase has neither.
Practice
Which is a prepositional phrase?
Choose one answer.
Under the old bridge starts with a preposition and ends with a noun. 'Because it was late' is a clause, and the other options have no preposition.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prepositional phrase”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.