PREPOSITIONS

What is a Preposition?

A preposition is a word that begins a prepositional phrase and shows the relationship between its object and another word in the sentence. A preposition must always have an object. A prepositional phrase starts with a preposition, ends with an object, and may have modifiers between the proposition and object of the preposition.

Telling Prepositions from Adverbs

These words can be used as other parts of speech. What part of speech it is depends on how it is used in that sentence. Many of the common words used as prepositions can be used as adverbs. Words are prepositions if they have an object to complete them. To decide which it is say the preposition followed by whom or what. If a noun or a pronoun answers the question, the word is a preposition.

· The boy stood up and ran down the street.

· Up is an adverb because there is no object; down is a preposition because there is (the street).

Practice

1. Jim painted a picture on the wall of the house.

2. I like to lie in the shade of the apricot tree and think of the jobs for the day.

3. The dog jumped over the mound behind the barn and ran into the street.

4. Everyone but you will need a note from home with parental permission.

5. Around the yard for miles, you could see nothing except junk.

CONJUNCTIONS

What is a Conjunction?

A conjunction is a word that joins other words, phrases (groups of words), or clauses (groups of words with a subject and verb). Co-ordinate conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses of equal rank. There are two kinds: simple and correlative. Subordinate conjunctions join dependent clauses to independent clauses.

Conjunctions

• The co-ordinate conjunctions are the following: and, but, or, nor, for, and yet.
• The correlative conjunctions are always in pairs. They are either-or, neither-nor, both-and, not only-but also, and whether-or.
• Some common subordinate conjunctions are after, although, as, as if, because, before, if, since, so that, than, unless, until, when, where, while.

INTERJECTIONS!

What is an Interjection?

An interjection is a word or word group that shows feeling. A mild interjection is followed by a comma; a strong interjection is followed by an exclamation mark. Interjections are rather easy to understand so we will not spend much time on them.