Prepositional phrases begin with a preposition and end with a noun or pronoun object.

Example:

(In an earlier part) (of this century), a seventeen-year-old Hawaiian girl married a young man (of Chinese descent) and was denied the right to take calabashes and quilted heirlooms (to her new home) (in Honolulu) (as a result) (of her controversial marriage) (to a man) (of another race).

• Prepositional phrases provide extra information in a sentence.

• They answer questions like how, what, when, where, who, and why.

A sentence can end with a preposition.

• Sometimes it has to in order to make sense.

Example:

Ashamed of not having a quilt to cover her bed, the young woman went to a local store and bought materials for the purpose of making one but had no pattern to make it with.

Note: In the preceding example, to make it is not identified as a prepositional phrase since make is a verb.

To directly followed by a verb plus a noun or pronoun object creates a verb phrase.

Examples:

• to cover her bed

• to make it

To followed by a noun or pronoun creates a prepositional phrase.

Example:

• to a local store

There is also an implied prepositional phrase.

• The implied preposition is the word of.

Example:

With all (the other young married women) displaying handsewn quilts to their friends, the humiliated young bride felt isolated from her peers.

The implied prepositional phrase is of the married women.

Single Word Prepositions

• Here is a partial list of common prepositions.

• They will help you to identify prepositional phrases.

about	around	beside	during	like	over	under
above	as	between	except	near	past	until
across	at	beyond	for	of	since	up
after	before	but	from	off	through	upon
against	behind	by	in	on	throughout	with
along	below	despite	inside	onto	to	within
among	beneath	down	into	outside	towards	without

A prepositional phrase may begin with a group preposition with multiple words.

Example:

After going to bed one night and dreaming about a fresh new design, the young woman got (out of her bed)(due to her desire) to capture the essence of her idea (in accordance with her dream) and (in spite of the lack) of a pre-drawn paper pattern proceeded to cut her motif (out of colored cloth) in order to baste it onto the background material before going back to sleep.

Group Prepositions

• Here is a partial list of group prepositions.

• They will also help you to identify prepositional phrases.

according to	by means of	in accordance with	instead of
ahead of	by way of	in addition to	on account of
as for	contrary to	in favor of	out of
as to	due to	in front of	rather than
as well as	except for	in place of	together with
aside from	exclusive of	inside of	with reference to
because of	for the sake of	in spite of	with the exception of

A prepositional phrase will usually not be the subject of a sentence.

• Here is a rare exception that breaks that rule.

Example:

O Pua, of Pua, was said by the woman helping her married friend to finish her dream inspired quilt by giving it the full name of Ka La'i o Pua meaning The Calm of Pua Lane.

• In this case, the prepositional phrase (O Pua) or (of Pua ) is the subject of a main clause.

• Therefore, it functions as the subject of the Simple Sentence.