Lesson 4: Non-Verbal Modifiers
Prepositional Phrases
prep·o·si·tion a functional word that combines with a noun phrase to modify a noun or verb
Prepositions are words like on, about, in, with, etc. They introduce phrases like, “in the house,” or “with my cat.” Such phrases are called prepositional phrases. Prepositions are one part of speech where familiarizing yourself with the most common ones comes in really helpful. Review these common prepositions.
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
Dr. Seuss
The word “in” is a preposition and introduces a prepositional phrase in each of the first two sentences above: “in your head” and “in your shoes.”
Compound Prepositions
Sometimes prepositions contain two words, as in “because of,” “out of,” “close to,” “in between,” and so on. Like multi-word verbs or compound nouns, they present a single idea through the pairing of two words and function the same as a single-word preposition.
The Object of the Preposition
So a prepositional phrase begins with a preposition, but what is the rest of the phrase made up of? A preposition cannot stand by itself (in what? with whom?), but will always be followed by a noun (or pronoun) called the Object of the Preposition (OP). This is the third object type we have learned, giving us the direct object, object complements, and now the object of the preposition.
So considering “in your head” again, we see that “in” is the preposition and “head” is the object of the preposition, with “your” as a genitive (more on that later this lesson). The prepositional phrase “in your shoes” is much the same: “in” is the preposition and “shoes” is the object of the preposition, and “your” is, again, a genitive.
Makeup and Function
Prepositional phrases never contain a verb and most commonly function adverbially (though they can also function adjectivally).
Let’s break this down.
Prepositional phrases never contain a verb. A prepositional phrase cannot stand by itself. It is an add-on, telling us more information about a verb or an object in the sentence, and it will never have its own verb. Or rather, a prepositional phrase will never have a verb acting as a verb. It could contain a participle, which is a verb form ending in -ing that can function as an adjective (as in “Jenny sat on the spinning chair.”). We will learn more about participles in a later lesson, but for now, just know that prepositional phrases have no “true” verbs.
Prepositional phrases most commonly function adverbially (and sometimes adjectivally). In the same way that an adverb modifies a verb (or another adverb, adjective, etc.), so too do prepositional phrases. That is, prepositional phrases function adverbially, just like an adverb…most of the time. They can also function adjectivally (like an adjective) and modify a noun (e.g. “I love books about pirates.”).
Overachievers
Once you get used to them, prepositional phrases are generally some of the easiest things to spot when parsing a sentence. However, there can be a point of confusion that people stumble over. Let’s see if we can work through it.
Several prepositions are also conjunctions, and some can even function as nouns or other parts of speech. For example, if you come across the word “for” in a sentence, how do you know if it is a preposition or conjunction? The answer is that you look for what it is introducing. Remember, a preposition must be followed by a noun phrase (i.e. a noun or pronoun, with possible modifying adjectives) to serve as the object of the preposition; that is, a preposition will not be followed by a clause with a verb.
“I bought a new basketball for my friend Paul.”
(prepositional phrase)
“I bought a new basketball, for my old one was lost.”
(conjunction + verbal clause)
In the second example, you can see that the word “for” introduces what could be a complete sentence in-and-of-itself (“My old one was lost.”). Therefore this is not a prepositional phrase, and “for” is not a preposition.
In the next step, let’s practice identifying prepositional phrases.