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The following are single-word prepositions that take clauses as complements. Prepositions marked with an asterisk in this section can only take non-finite clauses as complements. Note that dictionaries and grammars informed by concepts from traditional grammar may categorize these conjunctive prepositions as subordinating conjunctions.
English prepositions are words – such as of, in, on, at, from, etc. – that function as the head of a prepositional phrase, and most characteristically license a noun phrase object (e.g., in the water). [1] Semantically, they most typically denote relations in space and time. [2] Morphologically, they are usually simple and do not inflect. [1]
A list of 100 words that occur most frequently in written English is given below, based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus (a collection of texts in the English language, comprising over 2 billion words). [1]
English allows the use of "stranded" prepositions. This can occur in interrogative and relative clauses, where the interrogative or relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start , leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some kinds of formal English.
The preposition while also has other, relative-irrelevant uses: While she showered, I slept (time), While the maths exam was tough, the English exam was easy (contrast), While you're free to complain, doing so won't get you anywhere (concession). [15] As a relative word, the subordinator that has only the unstressed pronunciation /ðət/.
Fore or forward: at or toward the front of a ship or further ahead of a location (opposite of "aft") [1] Preposition form is "before", e.g. "the mainmast is before the mizzenmast". Inboard: attached inside the ship. [14] Keel: the bottom structure of a ship's hull. [15] Leeward: side or direction away from the wind (opposite of "windward"). [16]
the preposition on has what as its complement, but what is moved to the start of the sentence, because it is an interrogative word. This sentence is much more common and natural than the equivalent sentence without stranding: "On what did you sit?" Preposition stranding is commonly found in English, [10] as well as North Germanic languages such ...
In these flexible cases, preposition phrases can be constructed with a continuous structure (pied-piping) or an alternative discontinuous structure (preposition stranding). [9] [10] When pied-piping occurs, the preposition phrase is continuous, because the preposition follows the focused expression to a new position. In preposition stranding ...