Aboard
Down below
In between
Around about
Beyond but beside
Plus underneath
Following from outside
All of the above are a few prepositions, words we should never end a sentence with (whoops).
All of the above are a few prepositions. These are words we should avoid adding to the end of a sentence.
What are prepositions?
An English preposition is a word that usually appears in front of a pronoun or a noun. The preposition will express a relation with another word or an element within a sentence. Also, prepositions will link elements of a sentence together.
My weak area of writing is ending sentences with prepositions. I am guilty of writing the way I speak.
My job this weekend is to edit my prepositions. (Yawn).
There are exceptions. Grammar Girl has a good guide.
I have found links to some informative sites that can explain or assist far better than I can.
Prep1
Prep2
Personally, I think if the story is strong enough, an editor will guide a writer in the right direction. Plus, rules can be broken if the sentence works.
Meet The Important Ones!
5 Comments:
Good luck on your preposition hunting expedition.
It really isn't bad sometimes, Glynis, to end a sentence with a preposition. Depends on the sentence. But it's good to hunt out prepositional phrases because they often indicate a "weak" sentence. The power in sentences, as you know, comes from nouns and verbs. One should also hunt for adverbs; they can be just as bad if not worse. For example: "The boat glided smoothly through the water." How else would a boat glide? "The boat glided through the water, sending out ripples all around it" would be a possibility that would be visually stronger and cuts out the weak adverb. There are many, many examples of weak writing. I used to teach English grammar; ask me anything! (You can see I'm not overly modest!! lol)
Hope you're well. I'm hoping I soon get rid of this crud in my head; I'm feeling better than yesterday but still not up to par. And we're in a terrible drought here in Virginia USA. The trees are literally drying up; there will be no gorgeous autumn colors this year. It's spooky.
Enjoy preposition hunting!
Ann
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
I teach grammar all the time, and I know that prep rule is true, but sometimes you have to break it or your dialogue sounds off. People don't usually follow all the rules of grammar when they speak.
Alex, I will be taking a gun!
Ann, thanks for the offer, I might need you one day. I used to be OK with grammar at school. Now I find I tend to ignore the rules. I then panic when I read I should be doing such and such. Time to go with the flow and my gut instinct.
Valerie, how wonderful,you have become an Important One, thank you.
Anne, I have found my dialogue can look a bit 'stiff' if I follow the rules. I do worry that by breaking them it makes my work look weak. I have to stop fiddling around and let the words speak for themselves. :)
Thank you all for visiting today. ♥
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