Prepositions

• Prepositions indicate relationships between other words in a sentence.
• Many prepositions tell you where something is or when something happened.
• Most prepositions have several definitions, so the meaning changes quite a bit in different contexts.
• Ending a sentence with a preposition is not a grammatical error.

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What Is a Preposition?

“Vampires! Zombies! Werewolves!” “Where?!” “Behind you!”

Thank goodness for prepositions. Imagine not knowing where the danger lay….

Prepositions tell us where or when something is in relation to something else. When monsters are approaching, it’s good to have these special words to tell us where those monsters are. Are they behind us or in front of us? Will they be arriving in three seconds or at midnight?

Prepositions often tell us where one noun is in relation to another (e.g., The coffee is on the table beside you). But they can also indicate more abstract ideas, such as purpose or contrast (e.g., We went for a walk despite the rain).

Types of Prepositions

Prepositions indicate direction, time, location, and spatial relationships, as well as other abstract types of relationships.

Direction: Look to the left and you’ll see our destination.

Time: We’ve been working since this morning.

Location: We saw a movie at the theater.

Space: The dog hid under the table.

Preposition Examples

Unfortunately, there’s no reliable formula for determining which preposition to use with a particular combination of words. The best way to learn which prepositions go with which words is to read as much high-quality writing as you can and pay attention to which combinations sound right. Here are a few examples of the most common prepositions used in sentences.

I should rewrite the introduction of my essay.
Sam left his jacket in the car.
Did you send that letter to your mother?
We’re cooking for ten guests tonight.
Dan ate lunch with his boss.

You can also use tools like Google Ngrams to see which prepositions most commonly occur with particular words—but remember, this tool can’t explain the difference in meaning between different prepositional phrases like “pay for” (to purchase) and “pay off” (to bribe). For that, you may want to refer to a list of prepositions that includes the meanings of common combinations.

Ending a Sentence With a Preposition

The old claim that it’s wrong to end a sentence with a preposition has been utterly debunked. It’s not true and it never was true. Writers who always insist that a preposition can’t end a sentence often end up with stilted and unnatural sentences:

There’s no one else to hide behind. (Grammatically correct and natural)
There’s no one else behind whom to hide. (Grammatically correct, but unnatural)
Where did you come from? (Grammatically correct and natural)
From where did you come? (Grammatically correct, but unnatural)

That said, it is sometimes more elegant to move a preposition to an earlier spot in a sentence, especially in very serious and formal writing. But if you do move the preposition, remember to delete it from the end.

This is something we must meditate on.
This is something on which we must meditate.
This is something on which we must meditate on.

Unnecessary Prepositions

One of the most common preposition mistakes is adding an unnecessary at to the end of a question.

Where is your brother at?

Although this is common in some English dialects, it’s considered an error in writing. You can fix the problem by simply deleting the at.

Where is your brother?

On the bright side, if you’re not sure which preposition to use, sometimes you can just get rid of it altogether. In fact, you should always get rid of unnecessary prepositional phrases. Too many prepositions can be a sign of flabby writing. Look at how many prepositions appear in the sentence below:

For many people, the reality of an entry into a new area of employment is cause for a host of anxieties.

Getting rid of the prepositions forces you to tighten up the sentence. The result is shorter, more direct, and easier to understand:

Changing careers makes many people anxious.

Here’s another example:

Alex hit the baseball up over the fence.

Get rid of the up. You don’t need it:

Alex hit the baseball over the fence.

Who vs. Whom

Whom should be used to refer to the object of a verb or preposition. When in doubt, try this simple trick: If you can replace the word with “he”’ or “’she,” use who. If you can replace it with “him” or “her,” use whom.

• Who should be used to refer to the subject of a sentence.
• Whom should be used to refer to the object of a verb or preposition.

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Who or whom? If you’re like most English speakers, you know that there’s a difference between these pronouns, but you aren’t sure what that difference is. After reading this article, you might conclude that knowing when to use who or whom is not as difficult as you think.

When to Use Who

In a sentence, who is used as a subject. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

Who would like to go on vacation?

Who made these awesome quesadillas?

When to Use Whom

Whom is used as the object of a verb or preposition. Consider these examples:

To whom was the letter addressed?

Whom do you believe?

I do not know with whom I will go to the prom.

The Difference Between Who and Whom

How can you tell when your pronoun is the object of a verb or preposition? Try substituting “he” or “she” and “him” or “her.” If “he” or “she” fits, you should use who. If “him” or “her” fits, you should use whom. Keep in mind that you may have to temporarily rearrange the sentence a bit while you test it.

Who/whom ate my sandwich?

Try substituting “she” and “her”: She ate my sandwich. Her ate my sandwich. “She” works and “her” doesn’t. That means the word you want is who.

Whom ate my sandwich?

Who ate my sandwich?

Let’s look at another:

Who/whom should I talk to about labeling food in the refrigerator?

Try substituting “he” and “him”: I should talk to he. I should talk to him. “Him” works, so the word you need is whom.

Whom should I talk to about labeling food in the refrigerator?

You can also use questions to determine when to use who and when to use whom. Are you talking about someone who is doing something?

Gina drives her mother’s car to school.

Yes, you are talking about someone doing something, so use who in your question.

Who drives her mother’s car to school?

Now look at this sentence:

The car is driven to school by Gina.

No, the subject of the sentence (car) is not performing the action. Use whom in your question.

The car is driven to school by whom?

By whom is the car driven to school?

If you think the whom examples sound awkward or prissy, you are not alone. Many people don’t use whom in casual speech or writing. Others use it only in well-established phrases such as “to whom it may concern.” Some people never use it. It’s not unusual at all to hear sentences like these:

Who do you believe?

Who should I talk to about labeling food in the refrigerator?

Who vs. Whom Quiz

Please Find Attached: Do You Need to Notify Your Audience?

When I was new to the job market and mailing out resumes (although I’m dating myself, I’ll admit that this was well before the days of email), I sent my carefully crafted cover letters with a note that read:

Enclosed please find my resume.

One such mailing resulted in an interview. There I was in the wood-paneled office of an immaculately groomed lawyer. While I waited anxiously in an oversized leather wingback chair, he sat at his desk clicking his pen top and scanning my resume and cover letter. He looked up suddenly and grinned, pointing at the letter. “I love it when people write ‘Enclosed please find my resume.’ I didn’t even know your resume was lost!”

It was an embarrassing moment. I’d mimicked the business letter style I’d been taught in high school typing class, not to mention every other business letter I’d seen or received. But this interviewer pointed out just how inane and stuffy business-speak can be. I never used enclosed please find again.

These days, we’re more likely to want to call attention to attachments than items included with a mailed letter, but people still use please find attached all the time. Is this business writing holdover necessary?

Is there any reason to use please find attached?

Nope! There’s no need for this phrase. And there are several great reasons to dump it.

For starters, it sounds stuffy and old-fashioned. Even in formal correspondence, your goal should be to communicate in a straightforward, conversational way, free of wordiness or jargon. Please find attached is wordy jargon at its worst. It’s also a bit redundant to say that something is attached and then direct the recipient to please find it.

Another oddity with attached please find is that it’s a command when it doesn’t need to be. The popular English language blog, Separated by a Common Language, puts it this way:

There’s no need to boss around the other person to go about finding things, since the sentence is just communicating “I have attached a document for you”. In fact, it would be just plain weird to put this into another request form like Could you please find the document attached? or I would be very grateful if you would find the document attached. This underscores that please find attached is not much of a request at all. It is instead a set phrase in imperative form that does a not-very-requesty job.

Is “please find attached” essential legal language?

Attached please find reads like legalese, so you might wonder whether it’s necessary in a legal document. Writing expert Bryan Garner says no.

You see canned phrases like enclosed please find and as per all the time in letters. They’re high-sounding but low-performing. Your letters will be much clearer and more engaging without them.

Is please find attached grammatically correct?

Technically, there’s nothing wrong with saying something like “Please find the attached document.” Although find can mean to come upon something by searching for it (hence the smart-alec lawyer’s assertion that my resume must be lost), find also means to recognize or discover that something is present. Because you want your recipient to discover what you’ve attached, please find works.

But, for the reasons I just gave you above, you’re still better off avoiding it.

What are some alternatives to please find attached?

It’s easy to avoid this phrase. Just use direct language and drop the business lingo. Here are a few alternatives:

• I’ve attached [item].
• Please have a look at the attached [item].
• The [item] you asked for is attached.
• Please refer to the attached [item] for more details.
• The attached [item] includes . . .

Attachment Etiquette 101

There are a few etiquette guidelines to follow when using attachments.

1 Give a heads-up before sending an attachment if it’s unexpected.

Giving your recipient notice when you send an attachment is good form. Attachment-transmitted viruses have made us wary of opening those we don’t expect. (If your work involves sending attachments back and forth regularly, this probably isn’t necessary.)

2 Call attention to attachments.

Let your recipient know the attachment is there. People often miss them, so a little notification (via the alternative phrases suggested above) will help you avoid confusion.

3 If you mention an attachment, don’t forget it!

We’ve all done this. (I call it “attachmentitis.”) If you mention an attachment in your email, don’t forget to actually attach it. If you do forget, and catch your mistake only after you’ve hit Send, a quick reply to the thread saying “Here’s the attachment. Sorry about that!” should do the trick.

4 Don’t attach huge files.

Not only do email clients have file size limits, but large files can take a long time to download, especially on mobile. (You don’t want to eat up your recipient’s mobile data allotment, do you?) If you have a large file to transfer, use a service like Dropbox or send it via a link to an online document, like Google Docs.

Why “the Internet” Shouldn’t Be Stripped of Its Proper Noun Status

Breaking news! Read all about it—The Associated Press, one of the most widely followed authorities on written style, has lowercased the word “internet” in their 2016 style guide.

Starting today, AP uses lowercase internet and web in all instances. #APStyleChat

The decision has sparked much debate in the editorial and technology industries and beyond, but this isn’t the first time that an AP Stylebook change has caused some ripples . . . and perhaps even confusion. Case in point: why in the world is there a hyphen in “e-commerce” but not “email”?

The Evolution of the Term

The word originated as the adjective “internetted,” basically meaning “interconnected” when describing a network of multiple computer networks. “Internet” eventually replaced “internetwork” as the standardized term, evolving from an adjective into a noun.

The Importance of the Word “The”

There’s a distinction here between “an internet,” which simply refers to one of those networks of networks, and “the Internet,” the global network of networks. While “internet” is most commonly used in the context of the latter, many IT professionals and network engineers would be happy to correct you on the important difference a single article makes.

The Argument for Lowercasing

“The Internet” has been a proper noun for quite some time, but due to its prevalence in our daily lives, does it really need to be a proper noun anymore? Many argue that it shouldn’t; in casual use, it most often refers to the global network, and regular people tend not to talk about lesser internets. This means that we should let go of the practice of moving our pinky to the Shift key while typing.

The Reasons It Should Stay Capitalized

Basically, the above argument is silly when you phrase it in a different way: people shouldn’t capitalize things if they’re used a lot. However, we still capitalize “Mom” despite seeing her every day. The capitalization for many moms or even “my mom” is different from “Hey, Mom!” because in the last case “Mom” is a proper noun—the way we make the distinction between an internet and the Internet (even if the latter is used more).

The Internet as a Geo Locale

The first place to look for capitalization conventions should perhaps be in how we treat important places, locations, and landmarks. Unconventionally, the Internet is a sorta kinda place, and many places get capitalized: Paris, the Grand Canyon, Florida, the Empire State Building. “The desert” and “the universe” are not capitalized despite their geographical nature, the reason harking back to the original proper noun vs. common noun debate.

The Internet as a Unique Entity

So what exactly determines whether “the Internet” should remain a proper noun, deserving of capitalization? AP lets “usage dictate style,” but is that the common sense approach? Slate makes the most compelling argument—the Internet is a completely new, unique, and disruptive thing in our lives. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what is.

What are your thoughts: Internet or internet?

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Amanda Edens is an editor and content marketer with a wide range of talents from management to design. Check out her blog at www.askyoureditor.com or follow her on twitter @askyoureditor

3 Poems You Can Memorize and Recite (to Impress Your Friends)

Reading poetry is a wonderful experience, but have you ever memorized and recited a poem? Saying the words aloud gives the poem new life and highlights some of the nuances in the language. Here are three short poems you can memorize and recite for your friends and family.

“First Fig” by Edna St. Vincent Millay My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light.

“Devotion” by Robert Frost The heart can think of no devotion Greater than being shore to the ocean — Holding the curve of one position, Counting an endless repetition.

“Awaking in New York” by Maya Angelou Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway straps; and I, an alarm, awake as a rumor of war, lie stretching into dawn, unasked and unheeded.

Grammar Basics: When to Use I or Me?

Mistakes with objective pronouns often occur when we have to choose between you and me and you and I. Because you is the same in both the subjective and the objective case, people get confused about I and me. The way to check this is to remove the second-person pronoun.

When he’s finished reading the book, he’ll give it to you or I.

If the sentence read “…he’ll give it to I,” we would know that “I” is wrong.

When he’s finished reading the book, he’ll give it to you or me.

To learn more about grammar and to help us celebrate National Grammar Day this March, visit our new resource page.