+45.+ Notice the following sentences:
I want the book _on_ the box.
I want the book _under_ the box.
I want the book _in_ the box.
I want the book _beside_ the box.
I want the book _behind_ the box.
I want the book _beyond_ the box.
Do you notice any word in these sentences which does not belong to any
of the classes of words which we have studied? _I_ is a pronoun, _want_
is a verb, _the_ is an adjective, _book_ is a noun, _the_ is an
adjective, _box_ is a noun; but the words, _on_, _under_, _in_,
_beside_, _behind_ and _beyond_ are not nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs or pronouns.
Yet would it be possible to express the meaning in these sentences
without these words? Read the sentences without them, and you will see
that no one could tell the relation which you wish to express between
the _book_ and the _box_. And you will notice too that each word
expresses a different relation, for it means one thing to say _on the
box_ and another thing to say _in the box_, and so through the list.
+46.+ The words which are used to show this relation are called
_prepositions_. The groups of words introduced by the preposition, like
_on the box_ and _in the box_, and so on, are called prepositional
phrases. The noun which follows a preposition as _box_ follows the
prepositions _in_, _on_, _beside_, _beyond_, etc., is called the
_object_ of the preposition.
_Preposition_ is a word which comes into our language from the Latin. It
is formed from the Latin _pre_, which means _before_, and the Latin verb
which means _to place_, so preposition means literally _to place
before_. It is given this name because it is placed before the noun or
pronoun which is its object. Therefore our definition of a preposition
is as follows:
+47.+ +A preposition is a word that shows the relation of its object to
some other word.+
+48.+ Either a noun or a pronoun may be the object of a preposition.
Notice the following sentences:
Bring the book to me.
Lay the book on the table.
He will speak to you.
I will speak to the man.
In these sentences the noun _table_ is the object of the preposition
_on_; the pronoun _me_ is the object of the preposition _to_; and in the
last two sentences the pronoun _you_ and the noun _man_ are the objects
of the preposition _to_.
+49.+ There are not many prepositions in the language and they are
easily learned and easily distinguished. Here is a list of the most
common and the most important prepositions. Use each one in a sentence.
at
across
around
about
among
above
against
along
behind
beside
between
below
beyond
by
before
beneath
down
for
from
in
into
off
on
over
to
toward
under
up
upon
with
within
without