Prepositions and Conjunctions

PREPOSITIONS, CONJUNCTIONS, and INTERJECTIONS

PREPOSITIONS—A preposition shows the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to another word in the sentence. Listed below are some commonly used prepositions. aboard before for off toward about behind from on under above below in out underneath across beneath in front of out of unlike after beside inside over until against between instead of past up along beyond into since up to among by like through upon around down near throughout with as during next to till within at except of to without

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES—A prepositional phrase includes a preposition, a noun or pronoun called the object of the preposition, and any modifiers of that object. Prepositional phrases begin with the preposition and end with the object of the preposition. There may be a modifier or modifiers in between.

examples: aboard the train, across the great divide, at the movies, below the surface, by the orange car, from me, inside the refrigerator, off the charts, past the principal’s office, throughout the night, unlike most people, upon the huge trampoline, within reason

CONJUNCTIONS—A conjunction is a word that joins words or word groups.

COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS—A coordinating conjunction joins words or word groups that are used in the same way.

and but for (meaning because) nor or so yet (remember—FANBOYS) examples: peanut butter and jelly; excited but nervous; I came to see you, for I wanted to apologize; me or you; I want good grades, so I study hard; challenging yet fitting

CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTIONS—A correlative conjunction is a pair of words that join words or word groups that are used in the same way.

both...and either...or neither...nor not only...but also whether...or

examples: both students and teachers; either me or you; neither food nor water; not only silver but also gold; whether I should stay up or go to sleep

INTERJECTIONS—An interjection is a word that expresses emotion and has no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence. An interjection, which is followed by an exclamation point or a comma, usually comes at the beginning of a sentence but may also appear in the middle or at the end.

examples: aha, oops, yes, hurray, darn, yikes, wow, ouch, oh, hey, well