![\"Why](\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2086\/32464307670_36854ecb2d_z.jpg\" "\\"Why")
<\/a><\/p>\n <\/h2>\n\u201cPrepositions show position!\u201d<\/h2>\n
That is where I start. The very basics. Catchy. Easy to recite. Simple to remember.<\/p>\n
From there, we branch out to the explanation: Prepositions show position of one thing to something else.<\/p>\n
Of course, prepositions show time, space, and direction (among other things) of one thing to another thing. But let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n The first thing we need to know here about prepositions, as parents, older students, or adults, is the role that prepositions play in writing. So, today we will examine the role of prepositions\u2014and tips, hints, and lists for learning these vital words. (Find all of my preposition teaching methods in the Preposition Practice Packet here<\/strong><\/a>!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our \u201cgrammar theory\u201d here at Character Ink is that we learn grammar to write or speak.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am a big \u201cpurpose for learning\u201d type of teacher. If we know why we need to learn something, we will be more apt to want to learn it (or at least to see the value in learning it).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thus, phonics is for reading and spelling. (No reason to learn phonics without also reading from a reader at the same time to apply the phonics skills.) And grammar is for writing and speaking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So it is with preposition learning. Here is the sequence of \u201creasoning\u201d for learning prepositions:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The prepositional phrase<\/em><\/p>\n a. A phrase\u2014a group of words that does not contain a subject and a verb <\/p>\n Subjects in a sentence (anywhere in a sentence) must match their verbs in tense, number, etc. We learn prepositions so that we can find prepositional phrase. One reason we find prepositional phrases is so that we can isolate them and match our subjects and verbs with each other.<\/p>\n A preposition is a word that shows position or time between one item and another. It is the first word of the prepositional phrase.<\/p>\n A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition\u2014the word that shows the \u201cposition\u201d from or to. In the prepositional phrase, \u201cthe angel flew into the clouds,\u201d clouds is the object of the preposition.<\/p>\n Again, we learn prepositional phrases so that we can mentally eliminate them in order to match our sentence\u2019s subject with its correct verb. Recognizing and mentally removing prepositional phrases is a truly \u201cwriting worthy\u201d skill as it will help a person write more grammatically correct.<\/p>\n Consider the sentences below that have the prepositional phrases isolated with parentheses. Once you mentally eliminate these prepositional phrases, you can easily match the sentences\u2019 subjects with their verbs.<\/p>\n 1. The boy (in the woods) was lost.<\/strong><\/p>\n a. Isolating \u201cin the woods\u201d with parentheses keeps the writer from thinking that the sentence\u2019s subject is woods\u2014and keeps the writer from writing \u201cwoods were,\u201d which is not correct. 2. (On the outskirts) (of town,) a little house fell down.<\/strong><\/p>\n a.This sentence contains a double prepositional phrase.<\/p>\n b. This double prepositional phrase is used as a sentence opener\u2014coming before the sentence\u2019s real subject and real verb.<\/p>\n c. By isolating both prepositional phrase openers with parentheses, we find that the sentence\u2019s real subject is house (or a little house\u2014some grammarians consider the one word subject and some consider the entire subject with its describers) and the sentence\u2019s verb is fell.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3. The blonde girl (out of all the girls) was (on key.)<\/strong><\/p>\n a. This sentence contains two prepositional phrases<\/p>\n i. Out of all the girls b. By isolating them with parentheses (and thus, not considering them when we find our subject and verb), we can see that the sentence\u2019s subject is girl and verb is was.<\/p>\n c. If we did not isolate \u201cout of all the girls,\u201d we might be tempted to think that \u201cgirls\u201d is our subject and use the plural verb \u201cwere.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Re-read the sample sentences carefully. Without isolating the prepositional phrases, would you have been tempted to use the wrong verbs?<\/p>\n Isolating prepositional phrases is one of the most helpful beginning writing skills that a writer can learn. It helps eliminate one of the most common sentence writing errors\u2014that of mismatched subjects and verbs.<\/p>\n I think we can all agree that learning to recognize prepositional phrases is crucial to great writing! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beauty and the Beast Preposition Packet<\/a><\/p>\n Preposition Practice Pal (with free download!)<\/a><\/p>\n Teaching Prepositions (video)<\/a><\/p>\n Prepositions List<\/a><\/p>\n 5 Beginning Prepositional Tips<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prepositional](\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/394\/32030454153_c34bcc47a0_z.jpg\" "\\"Prepositional")
<\/a><\/p>\n(1) Prepositions are words that are found at the beginning of prepositional phrases.<\/h3>\n
\nb. Prepositional phrase\u2013a phrase (group of words) that begins with a word known as a preposition<\/p>\n(2) The subject of a sentence is seldom found within a prepositional phrase.<\/h3>\n
\nSince the subject of a sentence is not found in a prepositional phrase, if you learn to recognize prepositional phrases easily, you can eliminate them (mentally) and easily find your sentence\u2019s subject(s) and verb(s) to be sure they match.<\/p>\n
\nb. The sentence\u2019s real subject is boy and needs the singular verb was.<\/p>\n
\nii. On key<\/p>\n
\n <\/h4>\n
Some Other Places to Learn About Prepositions:<\/h4>\n