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University of New Mexico

Prepositions & Prepositional Phrases

Words such as "to", "with", "by", and "of" are prepositions. English has both one-word prepositions and phrasal prepositions, or multiple-word prepositions, which are made up of two or more words: "because of", "except for", "instead of".

A preposition shows the relationship between a noun and a pronoun—the object of the preposition—and other words in the sentence. The preposition, its object, and any associated modifiers are together called a prepositional phrase.

Words that are used as prepositions when they introduce a phrase containing an object may also function as adverbs or as particles when they are parts of phrasal verbs.



Common Prepositions
Aboard  Beneath Including Past
About  Beside  In front of  Regarding
Above  Besides  Inside Since
According to  Between Inside of  Together with
Across  Beyond  In spite of  Through
After  But  Into  Throughout
Against  By  Like  Till
Ahead of  Concerning  Near  To
Along with  Despite  Next to  Toward
Among  Down Notwithstanding  Under
Apart from  Due to Of Underneath
Around  During Off  Unlike
As  Except  On  Until
As for  Except for Onto  Up
At  For  On top of  Upon
Away from  From Other than  Up to
Because of  In  Out  Via
Before In addition to  Out of  With
Behind  In back of  Outside  Within
Below  In case of  Over  Without

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