The English Teachers Online Network of South Africa logo
   

Prepositional phrases

Prepositions

A preposition is a word in front of a noun, or pronoun, which shows the relationship between that word and another word in the sentence. Many idiomatic phrases in English are formed by prepositional phrases. In other words, the meaning of a sentence changes because of the preposition used. Look at the following examples:
  1. He came up with a wonderful idea. (He thought of an idea.)
  2. She came down with the flu. (She caught a disease.)
  3. She came into some money. (She inherited money.)
  4. How he came by that idea I don't know. (I don't know where he got the idea from.)
  5. He came along for the ride. (He came with no purpose, but to be with the others.)
  6. When she came to after the operation... (She regained consciousness.)
  7. I don't know what came over me. (I made a mistake.)
  8. She came at me with a knife. (She attacked me.)

Exercise

Match the prepositional phrases in Column A with their idiomatic meanings in Column B by writing the letter corresponding with the correct meaning in Column B in the middle column next to the phrase it relates to in Column A.
Column A Ans Column B
  1. He is going out with his best friend's girl!
  2. He is going up in the world!
  3. Kaiser Chiefs have gone down to Pirates again!
  4. Make the problem go away !
  5. I used to go in for photography quite a bit!
  6. She's gone over to the other side!
  7. My company has gone under !
  8. I must go into that!
  9. Let's go over the problem once again!
  10. In times gone by we didn't do that!
  1. to lose
  2. to disappear
  3. to have a date
  4. to examine carefully
  5. to improve your social status
  6. the past
  7. to investigate
  8. to change support
  9. to go bankrupt
  10. to be interested in
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1