Preposition Cheat Sheet

Prepositions can express:

 Place example: The tutoring center is behind the book shelf.

 Time example: During the meeting, we drank copious amounts of coffee.
 Direction example: The cat is running towards the tree.
 Causation example: He ran the race for breast cancer awareness.
 Relation example: The flavor is like a mixture of cotton candy and lemonade.

Prepositions have to occur before the noun that they relate to

The bracketed unit is the prepositional phrase

I went [into the library] to study for the final exam.

Preposition

In English, we often use specific prepositions in combination with verbs that make a distinct meaning,
called prepositional verbs. Listed below are common prepositional verbs.

 Depend on  Consist of
 Agree on  Aware of
 Base on  Emerge from
 Elaborate on  Hinder from
 Rely on  Belong to
 Work on  Connect to
 Adapt to  Refer to
 Infer from  Prepare for
 Prohibit from  Devoid of
 Stem from  Approve of
 Accuse of

A phrasal verb is a verb that has an idiomatic meaning that consists of a combination of a verb + adverb
or a verb + particle/preposition

A phrasal verb will differ from a prepositional verb in that the particle is movable in phrasal verbs and not
in prepositional verbs

o Example:
Phrasal verb: turn up
The verb “turn” can be separated from
o Turn up the volume of the stereo.
the particle “up”, meaning that this
o Turn it up.
cannot be a preposition