Prepositional phrases

We've come across a few multi-word prepositions (such as 'with the exception of') scattered through this lesson. They behave just like one-word prepositions: they introduce a noun group or thing and create a prepositional phrase.

However, some multi-word prepositions have very specific and often kind-of abstract or idiomatic meanings.

For example, how would you explain what the first prepositional phrase in this snippet means:

The second prepositional phrase, beginning with except for, means exactly what it says—an exception.

But the first prepositional phrase in that snippet, beginning with in on, means neither in something nor on something, but instead has a special meaning, which is to be privy to a secret.

There are lots of different multi-word prepositions (the Wikipedia entry has lots of examples), and they can create all sorts of similarly abstract meanings. The important thing is to recognise that they are prepositions, even when they look strange, and to be able to explain what they are doing.

Here are some more examples. How would you explain what each of these prepositional phrases means?

You might notice that multi-word prepositions often have words in them that aren't prepositions when used by themselves, such as the word instead (which by itself is an adverb) in instead of (which is a multi-word preposition).