List of Prepositions

This list of prepositions will help you understand what a preposition is. As you look through this list, remember...

Quick Refresher: Prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word or element in the rest of the sentence.

Be sure to listen to the preposition song!

Preposition List

* Notice that this list of prepositions contains one-word, two-word, and three-word prepositions. Sometimes, words act together to form one preposition.

A

aboard, about, above, across, after, against, ahead of, along, amid,

amidst, among, around, as, as far as, as of, aside from, at, athwart, atop

B

barring, because of, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides,

between, beyond, but, by, by means of

C

circa, concerning

D

despite, down, during

E

except, except for, excluding

F

far from, following, for, from

I

in, in accordance with, in addition to, in case of, in front of, in lieu of,

in place of, in spite of, including, inside, instead of, into

L

M

minus

N

near, next to

O

of, off, on, on account of, on behalf of, on top of, onto, opposite, out,

out of, outside, over

P

past, plus, prior to

R

regarding, regardless of

S

save, since

T

than, through, till, to, toward, towards

U

under, underneath, unlike, until, up, upon

V

versus, via

W

with, with regard to, within, without

The Preposition Song

This little song is sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle".

above across after at

around before behind

below beside between

by down during for from

in inside onto of

off on out through

to under up with

And that's the preposition song!

What Is a Preposition?

Seeing a list of prepositions is great, but you also need to understand what prepositions are.

* Remember that prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word in the sentence.

They are ALWAYS found in prepositional phrases.

Prepositional phrases are groups of words that act as a single part of speech, so all of the words act together as either an adjective or an adverb.

They always start with a preposition and end with a noun or pronoun.

Here are some examples of prepositional phrases:

at the movie
up the tree
around the block

Notice that all three of these prepositional phrases begin with a preposition (at, up, around) and end with a noun (movie, tree, block).

Start Basic Sentence Diagramming!

Sentence diagramming shows us how all of the parts of a sentence are related. If you are a visual person, diagramming is the best way to learn grammar.

When diagrammed, prepositional phrases go underneath the word that they modify.

The preposition goes on the slanted line, and the object of the preposition goes on a horizontal line coming off of the slanted line.

Just take a look!