English prepositions: above, about, across, after

Verb + Preposition: depend on, comes from, lead to

Noun + Preposition: example of, possibility of, reason for

Preposition + Noun: examples: at the theater, of culture, in the room

Adjective/Participle + Preposition: surprised at, famous for

Prepositions of Location, Place and Time: at school; in White House, in the Museum of Modern Art;

in the last day, in January

Different Combinations of Prepositions

A preposition links a noun or a pronoun following it to another word in the sentence. A noun or pronoun always follows a preposition. Below, you will find most common prepositions.

Prepositions
about	above	across	after	against	along
amid	around	as	at	before	behind
below	beneath	beside	between	beyond	but
by	despite	down	during	except	for
from	in	inside	into	like	near
on	onto	of	off	opposite	out
outside	over	past	since	through	to
toward	under	underneath	until	upon	with

Although not necessarily that all languages have prepositions, in English without prepositions we would not make sense. Imagine the passage below without prepositions, the meaning would get lost.

The brain where your memories is stored. Everyday the brain loses thousands of cells. These cells are not replaced, but we still keep our memories. Do you know that the brain doesn't feel pain. During the brain surgery, we feel no pain at all.

As you see in this passage, the pronouns 'of', but', 'during' are followed by nouns Prepositions connect nouns that describe an object. In this passage, the noun thousand and cells are connected with the preposition of that describes the noun cell. A prepositional phrase can be more than one word:

at the airport

under the sun

in the room

Here are some much longer prepositions:

under the sullenly blinking sun

a story of dazzling glamour in the riches

Prepositions can be used with verb, nouns, and adjectives in phrases. The most important group of prepositions are:

1. Verb + Preposition: depend on, comes from, lead to

2. Noun + Preposition: example of, possibility of, reason for

3. Adjective/Participle + Preposition: surprised at, famous for

4. Prepositions of Location, Place and Time: at school; in White House, in the Museum of Modern Art;

in the last day, in January

Attention: Prepositions are meaningful when they are used together with nouns and pronouns. So, always learn prepositions with words they go together. Do not try to translate prepositional verbs to your own language; they will not make sense.

Noun + Preposition

cause of	equivalent of	influence on	result of	evidence of
need for	use of	danger of	example of	cost of
solution to	possibility of	effect on	reason for	supply of

Adjective/Participle + Preposition

accustomed to	different from	necessary for	responsible for
expert at	opposes to	based on	surprised at
free from	compared to	famous for	related to
afraid of	typical of	critical of	patient with

Different Combinations of Prepositions

according to	in the process of
as a consequence	in view of
as a result of	on account of
because of	on behalf of
by means of	on the basis of
in addition to	prior to
in spite of	in terms of
with the exception of	in need of
in front of	in stead of

Verb + Prepositions

account for	contribute to	insist on	plan on
depend on	lead to	rely on	belong to	result in
overcome by	limited to	fight for	separate from
withdraw from	believe in	occur to	look for	carry on
look into	take off	get on	get off	get in

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