Friday, August 16, 2013

Where should I put it? Put it on the table. (Prepositions)

Today's lesson is going to be short ... but sweet (well, maybe not sweet, but important to know).

Prepositions tell us time, placement, or direction. One of my favorite sites for help in writing is Purdue University's OWL (online writing lab). The site defines a preposition as a word that denotes time and place, or introduces objects.

On their own, prepositions don't mean much. Words like on, at, through, above, below, or behind just ... well, fill up space. So we have what we call prepositional phrases. These are phrases that start with the preposition and then end with a noun or pronoun, which is called the object of the preposition.
I'm getting in my car, driving to the store, and walking down the aisles. In, to, and down are prepositions. Car, store, and aisles are objects of the preposition.
I'm sitting on my desk, going through my papers, while my dogs sit at my feet. On, through, and at are prepositions. Desk, papers, and feet are objects of the preposition.
Simple, huh?

One key here: When you're using a pronoun as an object of the preposition, make certain you're using the objective form of the pronoun (see the blog on nouns and pronouns for more information). For example, if the sentence is:
Please give the tickets to Sharon and _____ as soon as possible.
what form of the pronoun I/me would you use? If to is a preposition (and it is!), then you want to use the objective form of the pronoun. Is that I or me? Hopefully, you recognize that the correct sentence should be:
Please give the tickets to Sharon and me as soon as possible. NOT ... to Sharon and I ...
Prepositions, like other parts of speech, are building blocks that help us give more information to our readers. As I often say (and if you watch my videos or read other blogs, you've heard this before), when we communicate in writing, we only have our words (parts of speech) and how we use them (sentence structure, punctuation, paragraph structure).

So use them well!

Keep pen to paper!

Professor Rinehart

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