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Prepositions and Conjunctions
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In this lesson, you will learn about words that help us show relationships between ideas.

Prepositions and conjunctions are words that help us express how ideas in a sentence are related.

Prepositions

Prepositions describe the position or relationship between words and ideas in a sentence. Review the following list of common prepositions and notice how most indicate position in time or space.

Examples of prepositions include among, after, inside, on, into, since, toward, under, during, from, within.

Prepositions are always followed by nouns. This is called a prepositional phrase. See below:

  • Among the trees
  • Into the car
  • During my lunch break
  • From my grandmother

Conjunctions

Conjunctions join (or conjoin) words or parts of a sentence. Two important types of conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

Examples of coordinating conjunctions include for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

NOTE: The word “fanboys” can help you remember these conjunctions.

Examples of subordinating conjunctions include after, even though, unless, although, as long as, because, once, since, than, that, until, when, while (this is not a complete list of all conjunctions).

In the example sentences below, notice how the prepositions join two parts of a sentence:

I cannot go swimming because I just ate a big meal.

People had to find information at the library before the internet was developed.

When a sentence begins with a subordinating conjunction, a comma is placed after the first clause. See the examples below:

Because I just ate a big meal, I cannot go swimming.

Before the internet was developed, people had to find information at the library.

Practice Problems

  1. True or False: Prepositions are never followed by nouns.
  2. In the following sentence, which words are prepositions? Last week, my friends and I decided to get tickets for a movie premiere before they were all sold out.
  3. In the following sentence, which words are prepositions? Despite the long line, we got our tickets, and last night we went to the midnight premiere.
  4. In the following sentence, which words are prepositions? We got to the theater two hours before the movie started since we wanted to get good seats.
  5. In the following sentence, which words are prepositions? During the movie, I fell asleep, but it wasn’t that great anyway.
  6. True or False: Conjunctions join two parts of a sentence.
  7. In the following sentence, which word is a conjunction? The library in my neighborhood has great librarians, but it is very small.
  8. In the following sentence, which phrase is a conjunction? Even though they have limited funds, they always hold fun events for the community.
  9. In the following sentence, which words are conjunctions? Because the events always introduce me to great books, I always try to go and bring my family.
  10. In the following sentence, which words are conjunctions? If the library receives more funds, they’ll be able to expand their collection, so I try to donate whenever I have a little extra cash.
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Answer Key
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Answers:
  1. False
  2. for, before
  3. Despite, to
  4. to, before, since
  5. During
  6. True
  7. but
  8. Even though
  9. Because, and
  10. If, so, whenever
)

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    Building Sentences