Prepositional phrases

When is a preposition not a preposition?

One of the great features of English is that words can have all sorts of different meanings based on context. On the other hand, this can also make English very confusing.

For example, many words that we use as prepositions can also function as adverbs. Here's one example:

He shrugged, pulled out a little scrap of paper from his jeans pocket, and flicked it across the table to me.

Wonder(2012)

We've said before that out is a preposition, but here it's functioning as an adverb because it's describing the quality of the action pull more than it's telling us about the position of the scrap of paper.

If you moved out around in the sentence, you can see its function change:

  • He pulled out a little scrap of paper from his jeans pocket. (Adverb, linked to the word pull)
  • He pulled a little scrap of paper out from his jeans pocket. (You could analyse out as an adverb here, still linked to the word pull, or you could say it's part of a multi-word preposition out from telling us about the position of the scrap of paper)
  • He pulled a little scrap of paper from out of his jeans pocket. (Part of a multi-word preposition, telling us about the position of the scrap of paper)

At the end of the day, these all describe the same scene. The difference between them is so subtle that many people would not even notice it.

Is one better than the other? That's a whole other question! You could argue that the word out is redundant in all of these and could be deleted entirely:

  • He pulled a little scrap of paper from his jeans pocket.

Problem solved!

But we're not here to talk about the best version of this sentence—we're here to help you realise that sometimes a word you think is a preposition is not acting as a preposition at all (and if you guess that it's an adverb, you're probably right).

Here's another ambiguous example.

Which of these two highlighting options do you think better expresses how this sentence works, and why?

"She's home looking after Grammar."

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

"She's home looking after Grammar."

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

The second option is better because in this situation the looking + after combine to create a kind of compound verb. Looking after (taking care of something) is very different to looking (using your eyes to see something).

That's the easiest way to tell if a preposition is being used as part of the verb—compare the meanings of the verb with or without the preposition and see if it changes completely.

Previous page