Preposition and postposition facts for kids

Have you ever noticed how some small words help us understand where or when something is happening? Words like in, on, under, before, or after are super important for making sentences clear. These words are called adpositions.

Adpositions are a special group of words that connect a noun (or a phrase that acts like a noun) to another part of the sentence. They show relationships like location (in the box), time (before noon), or how things are connected (a gift for you).

The noun or phrase that comes with an adposition is called its complement (or sometimes its object). For example, in the phrase in the box, in is the adposition and the box is its complement.

There are three main types of adpositions:

• Prepositions: These come before their complement. English mostly uses prepositions, like in England or under the table.
• Postpositions: These come after their complement. Some languages, like Turkish or Japanese, use postpositions. An English example is three days ago.
• Circumpositions: These are made of two parts that go around the complement. For example, from now on.

When an adposition combines with its complement, it forms an adpositional phrase (or prepositional phrase). These phrases often tell us more about a verb or noun in the sentence, like an adverb or adjective would.

What Do These Words Mean?

The word preposition comes from two Latin words: prae- (meaning "before") and ponere (meaning "to put"). So, it means "put before," which makes sense because prepositions usually come before their complements.

In languages like Turkish or Japanese, similar words come after their complements. That's why they are called postpositions (post- means "behind" or "after").

When two parts surround the complement, it's called a circumposition (circum- means "around").

Sometimes, a word can be used as both a preposition and a postposition. This is called an ambiposition. For example, in English, you can say the evidence notwithstanding or notwithstanding the evidence.

How Adpositions Work in Sentences

An adposition connects its complement to another word or phrase in the sentence. It also shows a relationship, which can be:

• Spatial (where something is): in, on, under, behind.
• Temporal (when something happens): after, during, until.
• Other types (like ownership or purpose): of, for, with.

Let's look at some English examples. The adpositional phrase is italic, the adposition is bold, and the complement is underlined.

• Telling us more about a noun:
  • the weather in March
  • cheese from France
• Describing the subject of a sentence:
  • The key is under the stone.
• Telling us more about a verb:
  • sleep throughout the winter
  • danced atop the tables
• Telling us more about an adjective:
  • happy for them
  • sick until recently

Sometimes, adpositions can even change the form of their complement. In English, if the complement is a pronoun, it usually takes the "objective case" (like him instead of he). For example, you say from him, not *from he.

Adpositions themselves usually don't change their form (they don't have different tenses or cases like verbs or nouns). They are also very common words in languages that use them. The most common ones are usually single, short words like on, in, to, by, for, with, at, of, from, as.

Types of Adpositions

As we learned, adpositions are named based on their position relative to their complement.

Prepositions: Before the Complement

Prepositions come before their complement. Here are some examples from different languages:

• English: in the house
• German: mit einer Frau ("with a woman")
• French: sur la table ("on the table")

Sometimes, the complement of a preposition might not appear right after it. This is called preposition stranding. For example, in English, you might say:

• "What did you sit on?" (instead of "On what did you sit?")
• "There's only one thing worse than being talked about."

Even though the preposition is at the end, it's still considered a preposition because it would normally come before its complement. Some old grammar rules used to say you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, but this is not a real rule in modern English!

Postpositions: After the Complement

Postpositions follow their complement.

• Latin: mecum ("with me", literally "me with")
• Turkish: benimle ("with me", literally "my with")
• English: ten months ago

Circumpositions: Around the Complement

Circumpositions have two or more parts that go on both sides of the complement.

• English: from now on
• Dutch: naar het einde toe ("towards the end", literally "to the end to")
• Chinese: 从冰箱里 cóng bīngxiāng lǐ ("from the inside of the refrigerator", literally "from refrigerator inside")

Simple vs. Complex Adpositions

Adpositions can be:

• Simple: A single word, like on, in, for.
• Complex: A group of words that act as one unit, like in spite of, with respect to, next to.

Many complex adpositions started as simple words that joined together over time (like within from with + in).

Marginal Prepositions

Some prepositions are called marginal prepositions because they are very similar to other types of words, especially verbs. Examples in English include concerning, following, including, and regarding. They act like prepositions but come from words that were originally verbs.

Different Kinds of Complements

Most often, adpositions have nouns or noun phrases as complements. But they can also work with other types of phrases:

• When the complement is a full idea or question:
  • We can't agree on whether to have children or not.
• When the complement is an action word ending in -ing (a gerund):
  • Let's think about solving this problem.
• Sometimes, the complement can be an adjective or an adverb:
  • The scene went from blindingly bright to pitch black.
  • I worked there until recently.

Sometimes, a preposition's complement can even be another prepositional phrase! For example: Come out from under the bed. Here, under the bed is a prepositional phrase that acts as the complement for from.

What Do Adpositions Tell Us?

Adpositions help us understand many different relationships in a sentence.

• Location or Direction: in the park, to the store, from London to Paris.
• Time: after school, during the game, until midnight.
• Other meanings:

* Possession: the pen of my aunt * Agent: killed by a lone gunman (who did the action) * Recipient: give it to him (who receives something)

Many common adpositions have lots of different meanings. For example, on can mean "on top of" (on the table), "about" (on the news), or "at a specific day" (on Monday). This can make learning new languages tricky!

Sometimes, the choice of adposition is fixed by the verb or phrase it's with. For example, in English, we say listen to music or proud of you. There isn't always a clear reason why that specific adposition is used; it's just how the language works.

Adpositions and Other Word Types

Adpositions can sometimes look or act like other types of words.

Adverbs and Particles

Some words can be both adpositions and adverbs. For example, inside:

• As an adverb: "Go inside." (It tells you where to go.)
• As a preposition: "Go inside the house." (It connects "go" to "the house.")

Many phrasal verbs in English use words that look like prepositions but act like adverbs, called "particles." For example, in "carry on" or "take over."

Conjunctions

Some words can be used as both adpositions and conjunctions (words that connect clauses):

• As a preposition: before the end of the summer
• As a conjunction: before the summer ended

Verbs

In some languages, like Chinese, many words that act as prepositions can also be used as verbs. This is why they are sometimes called "coverbs."

Case Endings

Some languages use case endings (small changes to the end of a noun) to show the same relationships that adpositions do in English. For example, in English, we use by for the agent in a passive sentence (killed by a gunman), but in Russian, they use a special case ending on the noun.

Even though they do similar jobs, adpositions are separate words that connect to their complements, while case endings are attached directly to the noun.

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