Prepositional Phrases Resources

A Guide to Prepositional Phrases

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition. The object is a noun or a pronoun that follows the preposition. The phrase, taken as a whole, acts as a part of speech and generally functions as an adverb or an adjective.

Prepositional phrase as an adverb
Remember than an adverb modifies an adjective, verb, another adverb or a clause, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause or degree. As a prepositional phrase, it answers questions such as How? When? Where?

Example: (The prepositional phrase is bolded)
Before I left my house, I made sure the door was locked. (When did I make sure the door was locked? Before I left my house.)

Prepositional phrase as an adjective
An adjective modifies nouns and answers questions such as What kind is it? How many are there? As a prepositional phrase, it answers the question Which one?

Example:
The milk in the refrigerator has turned sour. (Which item has turned sour in the refrigerator? The milk.)

Important to know
One last thing to remember about prepositional phrases is that they will never contain the subject of the sentence.

Example:
My sister, along with her friends, watched a movie on DVD. (The subject is “my sister”; “her friends” are part of the prepositional phrase, not the subject.)

Once students learn to spot prepositional phrases in a sentence, they’ll become more comfortable adding them to their own writing.