Prepositions and complex prepositions
Prepositions cannot be distinguished by any formal features. A list of prepositions will illustrate this point:
across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without
We can, say, however, that prepositions typically come before a noun:
across town
after class
at home
before Tuesday
by Shakespeare
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for lunch
in London
on fire
to school
with pleasure
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The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the preposition, however, since determiners and adjectives can intervene:
after the storm
on white horses
under the old regime
Whether or not there are any intervening determiners or adjectives, prepositions are almost always followed by a noun. In fact, this is so typical of prepositions that if they are not followed by a noun, we call them "stranded" prepositions:
Preposition
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Stranded Preposition
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John talked about the new film
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This is the film John talked about
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Prepositions are invariable in their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.
The prepositions which we have looked at so far have all consisted of a single word, such as in, of, at, and to. We refer to these as SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS.
COMPLEX PREPOSITIONS consist of two- or three-word combinations acting as a single unit. Here are some examples:
according to
along with
apart from
because of
contrary to
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due to
except for
instead of
prior to
regardless of
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Like simple prepositions, these two-word combinations come before a noun:
according to Shakespeare
contrary to my advice
due to illness
Three-word combinations often have the following pattern:
Simple Preposition + Noun + Simple Preposition
We can see this pattern in the following examples:
in aid of
on behalf of
in front of
in accordance with
in line with
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in line with
in relation to
with reference to
with respect to
by means of
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Again, these combinations come before a noun:
in aid of charity
in front of the window
in line with inflation
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