Prepositions

prep·o·si·tion (prê´e-zish´en) n.
A word that indicates the relation of a substantive to a verb, an adjective, or another substantive.

I'm not sure I understand that definition, but it doesn't matter. Our only interest in these little words is how they can help us in finding subjects--or, better said, in how they can show us what can't be the subject.

A phrase is a group of words. A prepositional phrase is one that begins with a preposition, such as at, before, beside, between, by, during, for, from, in, over, under, with. You get the idea. If you find a word in a prepositional phrase (e.g., "in the doghouse," "across the street," "under the house"), it can't be the subject.

So when you have trouble finding subjects, just get rid of the prepositional phrases. That will narrow your search to what's left. Take a look at the following: (I've bolded the subjects and verbs for browsers that do not support the strike through tag.

1. During the football game, I snuck into the kitchen.
2. The scraps from dinner were in the garbage.
3. Except for ol' Doc, no one was at home.
4. With one nudge, I pushed the can on its side.
5. Until the end of the game, I could snack on the scraps with no fear of interruption.

See how easy it is to spot the subject once you cut the stuff that can't be one? Pretty simple, but it may come in handy when we get to subject-verb agreement.

How about a "Self-Test" to see if you really understand.

© Scott Foll 2001. All rights reserved.