1. Prepositional Phrases
Mrs. Henson
English III AP
* Adapted from Sentence Composing for High School Students by Don Killgallon

2. Overview Begins with a preposition.
Ends with the object of the preposition.
Used to describe people, places, and things.
Sentences may contain single or consecutive prepositional phrases.

3. Common Prepositions In Under With Before Around Toward After Of At
Into
For
Down
Against
Across
Near
In case of
Inside
Through
In spite of
Outside To
Underneath
Between
Like
In between
Within
Except
In front of
Behind
Over
Beside On Up By
Without

4. Important!!
Prepositions serve as either an adjective or adverb in a sentence.
Just as with modifiers, prepositional phrases MUST be placed in close proximity to the item being modified.
If not placed properly, your sentence will have reference problems and be confusing to your reader!!!

5. Models Without Prepositions With Prepositions All children grow up.
He groped out and began to sob.
All children, except one, grow up.
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
He groped out for me with both of his own arms, like a drowning man, and began to sob against my stomach.
Stephen King, “The Mouse on the Mile”

6. Placement of Prepositional Phrases
Single Phrases
With a quick, guilty hand, she covered the tear, her shoulders bunching to hide her face.
Zenna Henderson, The Believing Child
Consecutive Phrases
In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.
J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit
Sentence Openers
Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

7. Placement of Prepositional Phrases
Subject-Verb Splits
Bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Sentence Closers
The sea is high again today, with a thrilling flush of wind.
Lawrence Durrell, Justine

8. Unscrambling #1 across the ripples it was morning
and the new sun sparkled gold
of a gentle sea
It was morning and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. -Richard Bach, Jonathon Livingston Seagull

9. Unscrambling #2 the boy felt good in his mouth of ham and biscuit
with the flavor
With the flavor of ham and biscuit in his mouth, the boy felt good. -William H. Armstrong, Sounder

10. Unscrambling #3 in one of Colin’s books with the ivy behind her
she was
and with her nice fresh face smiling across the greenery
with the sunlight through the trees
dappling her long blue cloak
like a softly colored illustration
With the ivy behind her, with the sunlight through the trees dappling her long blue cloak, and with her nice fresh face smiling across the greenery, she was like a softly colored illustration in one of Colin’s books. -Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

11. Prepositions Practice
Unscramble each set of sentence parts to create 2 different sentences.
Write 1 sentence of your own imitating each of the sentences found in the “Other Models” section
Practice 3
Combine each set of sentence parts into 1 sentence which imitates the model.
Then write 1 sentence of your own imitating each of the models.