A
preposition is a word before or after a noun or pronoun that form a
phrase modifying another word. I found a wonderful example from my
favorite grammar book The Bedford Handbook (The
other favourite is The Elements of Style
by Struck and E.B. White) which illustrates both methods:
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Notice all the nouns in the sentence: road, hell, intentions
Now notice all the verbs in the sentence: is, paved
And lastly, the adjectives: the, good
We have two remaining words: to and with. We know The is not a preposition because The is being used as an adjective to modify the noun road - It's used as a definite article. Now we are left with to and with. The word to is a preposition that links an adjective phrase back to the noun road. What sort of road is it? One that goes to hell. The second word, with, links an adverb phrase back to the word paved. If you remember, we said that an adverb is simply something that “adds to the verb”. So the word with is linking the additional modifications back to the verb paved. What is being paved to the road? Good intentions.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Notice all the nouns in the sentence: road, hell, intentions
Now notice all the verbs in the sentence: is, paved
And lastly, the adjectives: the, good
We have two remaining words: to and with. We know The is not a preposition because The is being used as an adjective to modify the noun road - It's used as a definite article. Now we are left with to and with. The word to is a preposition that links an adjective phrase back to the noun road. What sort of road is it? One that goes to hell. The second word, with, links an adverb phrase back to the word paved. If you remember, we said that an adverb is simply something that “adds to the verb”. So the word with is linking the additional modifications back to the verb paved. What is being paved to the road? Good intentions.
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