Prepositions cannot be distinguished by any formal features. A list of prepositions will illustrate this point:
across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without
We can, say, however, that prepositions typically come before a noun:
across town
after class
at home
before Tuesday
by Shakespeare
for lunch
in London
on fire
to school
with pleasure
The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the preposition, however, since determiners and adjectives can intervene:
after the storm
on white horses
under the old regime
Whether or not there are any intervening determiners or adjectives, prepositions are almost always followed by a noun. In fact, this is so typical of prepositions that if they are not followed by a noun, we call them "stranded" prepositions:
Prepositions are invariable in their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.
Identify all the prepositions in the following extract.
Click on the words that you think are prepositions; they will appear in the box below. You don't have to type anything but you can click in the box to edit your answers if you need to.
copyright
The Survey of English Usage 1996-1998
