Looking at prepositional phrases.
A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition. In the
following sentences the prepositions, followed by nouns,
form phrases and are underlined.
Cautiously, they creptinto the room.
She placed the bookon the table.
The clouds movedacross the sky.Most prepositional phrases can be identified as other phrases
as well. The above sentences are all adverbial phrases as
they say wheresomething happened. There will be more
about adverbs later. Look at the following sentences.
The treasure was buriedunder the apple tree.‘... under the apple tree’ is a prepositional phrase as it
begins with a preposition. It is also an adverbial phrase of
place as it sayswherethe treasure was buried.
The house,by the lake, belongs to Lord Melton.‘... by the lake’ begins with the preposition ‘by’ and so is a
prepositional phrase. However it is also an adjectival phrase
as it describes the lake.
Using phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbsare verbs that are followed by a preposition
which is part of the meaning of the verb. The prepositioncan
be separated from the verb but this often produces a clumsy
construction so it is better to keep them together. In most
34 / IMPROVE YOUR PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR