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What Are Postpositions?
Postpositions are a type of grammatical particle used to indicate the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other elements in a sentence. Unlike prepositions, which are placed before the complement or object, postpositions are placed after the noun or pronoun they modify. Together, prepositions and postpositions form a group called adpositions.
English Postpositions
English generally uses prepositions rather than postpositions, as in 'in class' and 'under the table'. However, there are a few examples of postpositions in the English language, such as:
Now take a look at some examples:
Fame and fortune
The garden was about four miles
His wife died ten years
Using a Postpositional Phrase
The Postposition 'Ago'
'Ago' is used to show how far back in the past something happened. Therefore, we should use time-related words before it. For example:
The woman you saw a moment
I started my new job
Note that when using 'ago', the simple past tense should be used, not the
present perfect tense.
She started a new job has started a new job a few weeks
Warning!
What Is a Postpositional Phrase?
A postpositional phrase is a phrase formed by a postposition and its complement, and it typically functions as an adverbial phrase in a sentence.
She was bedridden the whole week
Jokes
Postpositions: Functions
Postpositions can serve two main functions in a sentence. They can be:
- Adjunct Adverbials
- Disjunct Adverbials
Adjunct adverbials are words, phrases, or clauses that add necessary information to a clause. Disjunct adverbials are words or phrases that provide additional information to a clause. They are often set off by commas, and they can function as a comment on the whole sentence or as a modifier of the speaker's attitude or stance. Take a look at some examples:
Unfortunately we had to live
Circumpositions
Circumposition is when a prepositional phrase contains two prepositions, one at the beginning of the phrase and one at the end. These are uncommon in the English language, however, some examples can be:
- for God's sake
- for Christ's sake
- for goodness' sake
- for Heaven's sake
- for Pete's sake
Take a look at some examples:
What is it now,
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Compound Prepositions
Compound Prepositions or complex prepositions consist of two or more words that function as a single preposition. You'll learn about them here!
Complex Prepositions
Complex prepositions are created by combining two or more simple prepositions like out of and as for. In this lesson, we will discover more about them.
Participle Prepositions
Some participles (i.e. verbs ending with '-ing', '-en' or '-ed') can sometimes act as a preposition. In this lesson, we will learn about the most common ones.
Particles
Particles are words that have a grammatical function but do not fit into the main parts of speech. In order to learn about them, start studying them right here!
