Questions tagged [prepositional-phrases]
Questions about prepositional phrases.
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"All of the above" usage [duplicate]
My spelling tool suggests that I should fix "All of the" to "All the" in the following statements:
If we take all of the above notes into account...
All of the methods described above shorten your ...
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prepositional phrases strong enough to bring 'the' before the nouns they modify?
I was wondering if prepositional phrases alone were strong enough to bring the relative pronoun the before the nouns that they modify.
Upon reading (2) do you feel the people is restricted or ...
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Apart from + infinitive
A piece of news from the BBC reads as follows [emphasis in the original]:
The UN has said very little on the matter, apart from to insist it
is immune from legal proceedings.
Now, I knew that ...
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Technicalities about "%"?
Usage of "%"
I'm almost positive it's a prepositional phrase since it's really means "per cent" or "per 100".
So in a sentence like:
90% of my street are doing lawn work.
It would be "are" and ...
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Is it preferable to generally use nested prepositional phrases or a hyphenated adjectival phrase?
I've recently run into some sticky situations involving how to write out complicated concept descriptions. Take this example:
Which metrics are appropriate for evaluating the accuracy of a ...
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What's the difference between prepositional phrase and adverbial complement?
“I try to give ‘em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can
latch onto a reason.” (Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird)
When we say ‘prepositional verb’ and ‘adverbial complement,’ are they two ...
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preposition plus as little noise as possible
The side-passage door was fastened; I opened it with as little noise
as possible. (Jane Eyre)
What do you call grammatically ‘as little noise as possible’ after ‘with’? I’m very confused because ...
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two prepositional phrases
The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time.
(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
Are the ...
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"I gave him + INDIRECT OBJECT" vs. "I gave + INDIRECT OBJECT+ to him"
Consider these two sentences: "I gave him a pencil," and, "I gave a pencil to him."
Is it correct that the important part of the sentence is placed at the end? When we want to emphasize the pencil ...
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Is "off to somewhere with a car" correct?
I wonder if the structure of the following sentence is correct:
I'm off to my place with my car.
I'm the one driving the car, but I prefer not to use the verb drive. Would the following ...
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When do we use "to" as an infinitive marker? [closed]
In these two sentences:
I look forward to get.
I look forward to getting it.
Why is the first sentence incorrect? When do we use to as an infinitive marker?
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Zero article after "of" in "a change of place"
Given the sentence
The use of apples instead of pears is unexpected in the dish.
I don't think we can use apple instead of apples. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) But then, how come we can say the ...
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“For clarity” vs. “To make clear” [closed]
Compare:
"He modified the sentence for clarity."
vs
"He modified the sentence to make it clear."
Any difference here?
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When should the subject agree with the object of the preposition?
Quite often while I'm looking through research articles, I see sentences that start like this one:
The tensile strengths of the composites changed...
I generally change strengths to strength in ...
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3
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"compiled with gcc" vs "compiled in gcc"
"This program was compiled with gcc."
"This program was compiled in gcc."
"This program was written in C++."
"This program was written with C++."
Note: gcc is a widely used compiler by C/C++ ...
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5
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Why is "the" dropped in "I go to school by bus"?
Why is the dropped in "I go to school by bus"? Why isn't it "I go to the school by the bus" if both school and bus are countable? Does the rule that a countable noun must have an article have an ...
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"running on Windows" vs. "running under Windows" [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Run on an OS” vs. “run under an OS”
"This application can run on Windows" versus "This application can run under Windows"
Which is more natural, or what's the difference ...
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What part of speech are the words in the phrase “as well as”?
In the sentence:
My car as well as my lap top were stolen last night.
What part of speech are the words in the phrase as well as?
I believe the first as is the preposition of the phrase, that ...
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2
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What are "up" and "down" in "up there" and "down there"?
"Up there" and "down there" are two of the most frequent expressions that I, myself, use often. I really don't know whether they are just expressions used to refer to a place to go ("I went down ...
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Test for intransitivity of verbs?
Is it true that if any verb is immediately followed by a prepositional phrase, then it has to be an intransitive verb?
As a counter example, I need a sentence which:
(i) has only one verb, and
(...
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2
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Infinitive or Gerund for celebration of an event?
Which of the following sentences would be correct in a baby shower invitation.
My grandparents are looking forward to celebrate my arrival in February.
My grandparents are looking forward to ...
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"Support of" vs. "Support for"
"Show your support for the XYZ (Organization name) this season" or "Show your support of XYZ (Organization name) this year"?
I have seen support of and support for both being used. Is there a rule?
...
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When can "very" modify a prepositional phrase?
In Hamlet, when Hammy Jr. asks Polonius whether a cloud looks like a whale, Polly replies,
Very like a whale.
In contemporary English, however, "very like ..." feels ungrammatical. You instead ...
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Up my street and down the lane [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Do I travel “up” or “down” to London from north of the city?
Except where there is obvious difference in elevation e.g. on a sloping road, how do ...
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Using "to" versus "for" between two nouns ("key to success")
Another user provided an example and I have added others:
Key to exercise
Key for exercise
Answer to a problem
Answer for a problem
Bullet to a gun
Bullet for a gun
She bought ...
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2
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On Paddington Station?
I was interested to read that Paddington Bear was found on Paddington Station, not in or at Paddington Station. I would never have chosen this usage (I speak Canadian English). I had a look at Google ...
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"'To'/'on' the contrary" in these sentences: is the difference very slight?
I was interested in the following sentences which appeared, respectively, in a news article titled “Can’t Park? Blame a Condo" and in a news article titled "Senator Simmons on the Negro", both in The ...
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difference between "engage with someone" and "engage someone"?
What is the difference between "engaging with someone" and "engaging someone"? For example, what is the difference between these two expressions:
How do you engage with your employees?
How do you ...
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Meaning of "over in"
I read this sentence in a book:
I just took part in a study over in the Psychology Department.
Why do we add over in front of in the here?
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Is single-word "inbetween" becoming more acceptable? How far can it go?
I get the distinct feeling that "inbetween" occurs increasingly often as a single word, but I'm not at all clear on why it's used more in some contexts than others.
What I can is see that in Google ...
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"Can we get this over with?"
I am confused about this sentence because it ends in a preposition, something that I thought was not really grammatically correct:
Can we get this over with?
In addition, I haven't found a ...
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Using "connotation of" in an active manner?
How can I use the word connotation is a more active phrasing?
Often, if I want to say an object that suggests magic, I may say "the object has a connotation of being magical".
But this phrasing is ...
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Problems with usages of "of"
I do not understand some of usages.
It's more of a sanity check than anything.
even more of a hack
I'd argue that a course in algorithm design would be of more utility in understanding how ...
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"to throw someone something" vs "to throw something at someone"
In the following sentence, the need for the at preposition is clear:
"He threw something at him"
However, if I started the sentence the other way round, it would feel (at least to me) as if the ...
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Adverbs, prepositions, nouns, "home", and "about" [closed]
I'm confused about how the following sentences should be analyzed, in terms of which words are prepositions and adverbs, how the phrases break up, etc.:
She was going home.
She was home.
She was at ...
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Comma after introductory words, phrases, clauses: unacceptable, obligatory or optional?
I am no native speaker and always confused about the comma in introductory phrases, in particular in prepositional phrases. Is there any hard rule when a comma must be set? If I make a google search ...
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"An" average of vs. "The" average of
When nouns such as average, total, sum, etc., are modified by a prepositional phrase, how do you choose between the definite and indefinite articles? I cited sentences 1, 3, and 5 below from various ...
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Preposition used after "do"
I am an English native speaker working as a teacher in Germany.
When marking my pupils' essays I often encounter the phrase "to do something against something", which is as far as I know simply a ...
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More terse form of "the topic of which was"
I'm looking for a phrase to replace the topic of which was, with the goal of brevity. For example, could something like
The novel, the topic of which was whaling, proved to be excellent
reference ...
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When are the phrases "in motion" and "in movement" used?
When are the phrases in motion and in movement used?
In motion is the most popular form based on a Google search, but in movement still has 3 080 000 results.
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"I've decided not to leave A.I. Town" versus "I've decided to not leave A.I. Town" [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Order of “not” with infinitive
Last month I decided to change my residence and shift to another town. After some days, due to some reasons, I cancelled my program ...
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Starting a sentence with "In Winter 2010,"
Would that be permissible? It just sounds awkward.
Use Cases:
In winter 2010, two penguins, named Jony and Rony, were born.
In winter 2010, five ice-skaters , each in the 130 lb category, ...
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How to distinguish between positions of prepositional phrases?
Is there a name for where prepositional phrases are in a sentence? For example, is there a name to distinguish between the following sentences?
There has not been a queen on the island.
On the ...
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Is there a word for a verb which requires an adverb or prep. phrase in order to make sense?
Put is the one I'm thinking of. It is always transitive, but even with a direct object, it still makes no sense without an adverb or prepositional phrase.
I put it somewhere.
I put it on the shelf.
...
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Is there a difference in meaning between "from the beginning" and "since the beginning"?
He’s been with us from the beginning.
Is there a difference between from and since in the context of the quoted sentence?
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What is the "adjunct of space" in this sentence?
Can the adjunct of time be introduced in a sentence by the word to.
like in the case The case, which opens in the High Court on Thursday, has led to the discovery of 300 boxes of documents filling ...
user7676
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Prepositional phrases on the internet
Is there any online dictionary or database of prepositional phrases? What I would like is to enter e. g. "justification" and it would give me: "justification to somebody", "justification of something",...
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"Exchange emails with whomever you want to put me in contact [with]"
I realize the "never end a sentence with a preposition" rule is controversial these days, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it should be followed. What is the proper construction of a ...
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"I will go up to the stores"
What is the meaning of the following sentence, said from a person that is at home, and is going outside?
I will go up to the stores.
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"Available from" versus "available on"
What is the difference between available from and available on?
Do the following sentences have a different meaning?
Check the information available from [URL of a web page].
Check the ...
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