LESSON THREE

In Lesson 3 you should learn to recognize prepositional  phrases; and you will learn that a preposition can have several helpers  (objects of prepositions). By looking at the example sentences, you will  notice that a prepositional phrase can come anywhere in the sentence -- at  the front, in the middle, or at the end. You will also learn when the word to is a preposition and when it is not. 

A prepositional phrase can come anywhere in the sentence -- at the front, in  the middle, or at the end.  

Review: You already know that a preposition has to have a helper -- a  noun (name of a person, place, or thing) or a pronoun (takes the place of a  noun) as its object (object of preposition -- O. P.) 

You also have learned that the prepositional phrase begins with the  preposition and ends with the O. P. What you may not know is that there  could be several helpers for the preposition. 

Example A: The boy threw the ball to John, Latrice, and Juan. An object of preposition (O. P.) answers the question whom? or what? 

To find the O. P., you say this: "The boy threw the ball to whom?" (to John)  (to Latrice) (to Juan). To find an O. P., you need to say to whom or to  what. 

In this sentence, you can see that there are three names which answer  to whom. They are John, Latrice, Juan.  

Example B: Children like to play in the yard, the car, and the house.  You say, "Children like to play in what?" (yard, car, house). 

Remember that prepositional phrases are stuck together and cannot be  pulled apart. Therefore, in Example A, the prepositional phrase "to John, 

Latrice, and Juan" cannot be separated. In Example B, the prepositional  phrase "in the yard, the car, and the house" cannot be separated.  

Also, please begin to notice where prepositional phrases come in sentences.  Sometimes a sentence will begin with a prepositional phrase, sometimes it  will be in the middle, and sometimes the sentence will end with the  prepositional phrase.  

Example: Beside the school, an old house stood.  

Example: Sam saw the cat in the house and chased after it.  

One other thing you need to know is that if the word to is followed by a verb (word that shows action or condition -- such as run, sing, swim, play),  then to is not a preposition. It is part of an infinitive (to run, to sing, to  swim, to play). 

Example: Jaime loves to play. 

Play shows action and is a verb. To play is not a prepositional phrase but is  an infinitive. 

The word to followed by a verb forms an infinitive -- not a prepositional  phrase. 

Now let's see if you can find prepositional phrases and tell where the  prepositional phrases start (with the preposition) and end (with the last noun  or pronoun). You will need to remember your preposition list from Lesson  One.