Learn How to Use English Prepositions with JenniferESL - Lesson 1 - Introduction

Prepositions are words like

from, to, with, before...

Prepositions are usually short words.

They may be little words,

but prepositions can create a lot of confusion.

In this series of lessons,

we're going to look at some common prepositions

that people easily confuse.

Let's go over the basics.

Prepositions have objects.

Prepositions generally come before nouns, pronouns, and gerunds.

Let's talk more about the different kinds of objects a preposition can have.

A preposition can come before a noun, a noun phrase, or a noun clause.

A preposition can also come before more than one kind of pronoun.

And finally, a preposition can be followed by a gerund or a gerund phrase.

Prepositions and their objects form prepositional phrases.

We need prepositions to give information

about time, location, direction, reasons...

There are different ideas and different relationships

that prepositions help us express.

Generally speaking, we'll find prepositions toward the end of a sentence.

We can start a sentence with a prepositional phrase,

for example:

But often we find the prepositional phrases

toward the end, after the verb.

For example:

Some sentences may have two objects.

In that case, you likely have a direct object

and indirect object.

Here's an example.

What am I doing right now?

Explanation...Grammar

Two objects.

What am I giving?

An explanation.

give + explanation

verb + direct object

About what?

About grammar.

"Grammar" is my indirect object

-- object of "about."

What if I say...?

You...Explanation...Grammar

In this case, what I'm really saying is...

With this structure: give (something) to (someone)

I'm allowed to separate

the preposition and its object

and move that pronoun "you"

to an earlier position.

Again, these little words can create some confusion.

And I hope through this series of lessons

to reduce that confusion for you.

For now, just know that in most cases

a preposition is directly followed by its object.

But as you saw, there are times

when we can separate or need to separate

the object from its preposition.

This happens with the preposition TO.

For clarity or for emphasis,

we leave the preposition and object together.

But if I don't need to stress who or what

is doing the receiving,

I can move the object to an earlier position.

After the verb and before the direct object. (With "to" omitted.)

We also see separation of a preposition and its object

in questions.

While we're talking about word order

and sentence structure,

let me ask you a question.

In this sentence how many objects do you see?

Hopefully, you see two.

Is one of them a direct object?

No. "Lobby" and "noon" are objects of prepositions.

We have two prepositional phrases.

Note: When we have a prepositional phrase of place

and a prepositional phrase of time

place usually goes before time.

Another important thing to note

is that prepositional phrases give information

about a certain part of a sentence.

A verb, an adjective, a noun....

And the prepositional phrase usually follows

whatever part it's giving information about,

whatever part it's modifying.

Look at these examples.

So how did you do on that quiz?

Don't worry if you got some answers wrong.

I hope that after several more lessons on prepositions

you'll come back and take that quiz again.

Then I hope you'll find it much easier.

Until then, thank you for watching

and happy studies!