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6.1 What Is a Preposition?

This chapter deals with another group of little words you need
to understand: prepositions. Previous chapters showed how
adverbs and adjectives add details to verbs and nouns.
Prepositions are words that are placed before nouns or
pronouns; they show a relationship in a sentence.

Apreposition is a word or group of words

that is placed before a noun or a pronoun to show

a relationship in a sentence.

In the illustration above, the phrases inside the food cart,
on top of the road, and at 9:00 a.m. can be added to a basic
sentence containing a subject and a verb, thus extending the
sentence.

Example: Fred is inside the food cart.

The word inside is a preposition. It shows the relationship
between Fred and the cart.

Example: The food cart sits on top of the road.

The words on top of function as a preposition and show the
relationship between the food cart and the road.

Example: Fred’s Foods opens today at 9:00 a.m.

The word at is a preposition and shows the relationship between
Fred’s Foods and 9:00 a.m.

As we explore the next section, you will see that each preposition
shows a slightly different type of relationship.

Open

To day

inside

on

top of

at 9:00 a.m.

the

road

food cartthe