PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

The Prepositional Phrase

Recognize a prepositional phrase when you see one.

At the minimum, a prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun,pronoun, gerund, or clause, the "object" of the preposition.

The object of the preposition will often have one or more modifiers to describe it. These are the patterns for a prepositional phrase:

preposition + noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause

preposition + modifier(s) + noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause

Here are some examples of the most basic prepositional phrase:

At home

At = preposition; home = noun.

In time

In = preposition; time = noun.

From Richie

From = preposition; Richie = noun.

With me

With = preposition; me = pronoun.

By singing

By = preposition; singing = gerund.

About what we need

About = preposition; what we need = noun clause.

Most prepositional phrases are longer, like these:

From my grandmother

From = preposition; my = modifier; grandmother = noun.

Under the warm blanket

Under = preposition; the, warm = modifiers; blanket = noun.

In the weedy, overgrown garden

In = preposition; the, weedy, overgrown = modifiers; garden = noun.

Along the busy, six-lane highway

Along = preposition; the, busy, six-lane = modifiers; highway = noun.

Without excessively worrying

Without = preposition; excessively = modifier; worrying = gerund.

Understand what prepositional phrases do in a sentence.

A prepositional phrase will function as an adjective or adverb. As an adjective, the prepositional phrase will answer the question Which one?

Read these examples:

The book on the bathroom floor is swollen from shower steam.

Which book? The one on the bathroom floor!

The sweet potatoes in the vegetable bin are green with mold.

Which sweet potatoes? The ones forgotten in the vegetable bin!

The note from Beverly confessed that she had eaten the leftover pizza.

Which note? The one from Beverly!

As an adverb, a prepositional phrase will answer questions such as How? When? or Where?

Freddy is stiff from yesterday's long football practice.

How did Freddy get stiff? From yesterday's long football practice!

Before class, Josh begged his friends for a pencil.

When did Josh do his begging? Before class!

Feeling brave, we tried the Dragon Breath Burritos at Tito's Taco Palace.

Where did we eat the spicy food? At Tito's Taco Palace!

Remember that a prepositional phrase will never contain the subject of a sentence.

Sometimes a noun within the prepositional phrase seems the logical subject of a verb. Don't fall for that trick! You will never find a subject in a prepositional phrase. Look at this example:

Neither of these cookbooks contains the recipe for Manhattan-style squid eyeball stew.

Cookbooks do indeed contain recipes. In this sentence, however, cookbooks is part of the prepositional phrase of these cookbooks. Neither—whatever a neither is—is the subject for the verb contains.

Neither is singular, so you need the singular form of the verb, contains. If you incorrectlyidentified cookbooks as the subject, you might write contain, the plural form, and thus commit a subject-verb agreement error.

Some prepositions—such as along with and in addition to—indicate "more to come." They will make you think that you have a plural subject when in fact you don't. Don't fall for that trick either! Read this example:

Tommy, along with the other students, breathed a sigh of relief when Mrs. Markham announced that she was postponing the due date for the research essay.

Logically, more than one student is happy with the news. But Tommy is the only subject of the verbbreathed. His classmates count in the real world, but in the sentence, they don't matter, locked as they are in the prepositional phrase.

ADVERB PHRASE

A word group with an adverb as its head. This adverb may be accompanied by modifiers or qualifiers.

An adverb phrase can modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, and it can appear in a number of different positions in a sentence

As we have seen already in the section on Adverb, Adverb is a word which gives an additional detail about the meaning of a verb or an adjective or another adverb.

In many sentences, the adverb need not be a word. An adverb may be a phrase as in the following sentences.

Just as the work of an adjective is done by ‘a group of words’ called Adjective-phrase, so the work of an adverb can be done by ‘a group of words’ which is called ‘ADVERB-PHRASE’.

THE EXAMPLES :

• The players responded surprisingly well to all the pressures of the playoffs.


• The best way to preserve the flavor and texture of fresh vegetables is to cook them as quickly as possible.


• As quickly as possible we cleaned the fish and placed them in coolers.


• The air was warm, stirred only occasionally by a breeze.


• Only occasionally is there a rumble in the sky or a hint of rain.

• Clinton ran quickly.
In this sentence, the adverb ‘quickly’ gives another detail about the verb ‘ran’.

• Clinton ran with great speed.
In this sentence, the same meaning has been conveyed by using ‘a group of words’-‘with great speed’.

In this same manner, the meaning of an adverb can be conveyed by using different a group of words.

That group of words is called ADVERB-PHRASE.

In the following sentences, the first sentence and the second sentence in a pair convey the same meaning but using adverb in the first sentence and adverb-phrase in the second sentence.

• He answered rudely.
• He answered in a rude manner.

• He does his work carelessly.
• He does his work without care.

• No such diseases were known then.
• No such diseases were known in those days.

• The mango fell here.
• The mango fell on this spot.

• This product is available everywhere.
• This product is available in all places.

• You can find the pencil there.
• You can find the pencil in that place.

• He has gone abroad.
• He has gone to a foreign nation.

• We constructed this house only recently.
• We constructed this house only few months back.

ADJECTIVE PHRASE

An adjective phrase or adjectival phrase is a phrase the head word of which is an adjective, e.g. fond of steak, very happy, quite upset about it, The adjective in an adjective phrase can initiate the phrase (e.g. fond of steak), conclude the phrase (e.g. very happy), or appear in a medial position (e.g. quite upset about it). The dependents of the head adjective - i.e. the other words and phrases inside the adjective phrase - are typically adverbs or prepositional phrases, but they can also be clauses (e.g. louder than you do). Adjectives and adjective phrases function in two basic ways in clauses, either attributively or predicatively. When they are attributive, they appear inside a noun phrase and modify that noun phrase, and when they are predicative, they appear outside of the noun phrase that they modify and typically follow a linking verb (=copula).


Adjective Phrases

An adjectivephraseusually starts with apreposition(e.g., of, in, on) or aparticiple(e.g., taken, leaving) and follows thenounit ismodifying.

Example:

This is the endof a very long road.
                           
                             adjective phrase
Example:

Did you see the manleaving the shop?
                                  
                                   adjective phrase

The adjective phrases are underlined in the following example sentences, the head adjective in each of these phrases is in bold, and how the adjective phrase is functioning - attributively or predicatively - is stated to the right of each example:

a. Sentences can contain tremendously long phrases. - Attributive adjective phrase

b. This sentence is not tremendously long. - Predicative adjective phrase

a. A player faster than you was on their team. - Attributive adjective phrase

b. He is faster than you. - Predicative adjective phrase

a. Sam ordered a very spicy but quite small pizza. - Attributive adjective phrases

b. The pizza is very spicy but quite small. - Predicative adjective phrases

a. People angry with the high prices were protesting. - Attributive adjective phrase

b. The people are angry with the high prices. - Predicative adjective phrase

Verb Phrase

     Every sentence must have a verb. To depict doable activities, writers use action verbs. To describe conditions, writers choose linking verbs.

Sometimes an action or condition occurs just once—pow!—and it's over. Read these short sentences:

-Offering her license and registration, Selena sobbed in the driver's seat. Officer Carson was unmoved.

     Other times, the activity or condition continues over a long stretch of time, happens predictably, or occurs in relationship to other events. In these instances, a single-word verb like sobbed or was cannot accurately describe what happened, so writers use multipart verb phrases to communicate what they mean. As many as four words can comprise a verb phrase.

     

     A main or base verb indicates the type of action or condition, and auxiliary—or helping—verbs convey the other nuances that writers want to express.

Read these three examples:

-The tires screeched as Selena  mashed  the accelerator.

-Selena  is  always disobeying  the speed limit.

-Selena should have been driving with more care, for then she would not have gotten her third ticket this year.

     In the first sentence, screeched and mashed, single-word verbs, describe the quick actions of both the tires and Selena.

     Since Selena has an inclination to speed, is disobeying [a two-word verb] communicates the frequency of her law breaking. The auxiliary verbs that comprise should have been driving [a four-word verb] and would have gotten [a three-word verb] express not only time relationships but also evaluation of Selena's actions.

Cherry Orange Smoothie

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large banana, frozen
• 1 cup pitted cherries, frozen
• 1/2 container frozen orange juice concentrate
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut the frozen banana into two pieces and add it to the carafe of your blender. Add in the frozen pitted cherries and the frozen orange juice concentrate and pulse briefly several times until the majority of the frozen orange juices concentrate and frozen fruit are broken down into smaller pieces.
2. Drizzle in the lemon juice, vanilla and Greek yogurt, and then turn the speed on the blender to low. Blend until a swirling vortex occurs in the center of your blender carafe. If ever the smoothie binds up, and the mixture stops blending, turn the power off and wait for an air bubble to break the surface of the smoothie before continuing.
3. Once the swirling vortex in the center of your smoothie happens, slowly turn the speed to medium and blend for a full two minutes until smooth.
4. Pour your smoothie evenly into two glasses and enjoy!

Nur Ain Baharuddin

Assalamualaikum and hye everyone . 

My name is Nur Ain Baharuddin and you can call me ain in short . I am from Kota Bharu , Kelantan . My passion is pink colour and i really do love food :D

In last semester , i had a great time with Madam Kemboja in Foundation English . She helps us in every difficulty in understanding of grammar . While in this new semester , i am hoping for the same from Madam Noraza . i need to learn more and more about grammar so that i can be a good writer student one fine day :) 

Thank you :)

NORZAHIDAH BT MOHD SALLEH

Dear reader,

Assalamualaikum n hye..
My name is Norzahidah bt Mohd Salleh but you can call me as Za. I am 21 years old. I came from Tumpat, Kelantan. My hobby is watching television.

In the last semestar, i have learn subject Foundation English by Madam Noraza. In this subject,i learn about nouns, verbs, preposition and many more.. To make it simple,we learn about grammar. This semester, i am in Structures In Context class teach by Madam Noraza.

My expectations about this subject... ermm..i think that this subject is interesting because I bet that all of us will learn about grammar deeper. I hope that all of us will enjoy this subject.. hehe.. That all from me..

Sincerely,
za :)

NUURZALIFAH MOHD GHAZALI

  Hello and assalamualaikum everyone, its me Nuurzalifah bt Mohd Ghazali also known as Kuza and I'm from Pahang. There's nothing much about me actually. This is a group blog,so you can see the other 3 members here too.

  This blog is for the Structure In Context course that we take for this semester. it basically a continuation from our previous course in the last semester which is Foundation English. The different is that now we learn about sentences. We still have Pn.Norazah as our lecturer in this semester.

 The last course really helps me a lot in my grammar. Now for this course I hope it can helps me to write a better writings..