Confusion over Prepositional Phrases

Hello omegan3,

If you are having problems with Prepositional Phrases, I would request you to refer to the GMAT Club Grammar Book.

If you don't have the link to download, here it is:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gmat-grammar-book-133952.html

Also, in case you still find it difficult try using Khan Academy - Sal has explained this concept in very simple way.

Hope this helps. Feel free to revert in case you have further questions.

Hi omegan3, two main scenarios where identifying Prepositional Phrases comes in quite handy on GMAT SC:

i) In Subject-Verb agreement questions

ii) In Modifiers questions

Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana introduces Prepositional Phrases as part of Subject-verb agreement chapter (application of Prepositional Phrases in Modifiers is covered later as part of Modifiers chapter). Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

You do not (and frankly cannot) memorize all Prepositional Phrases; there would be millions of them .

Memorizing all Prepositions is perhaps a more realistic possibility, but even that is not worth it.

Hi ccooley,

Thanks for replying. Sure, for example:

"To run with the wolves on thirty consecutive cold winter mornings in Minsk, Belarus, is to truly strengthen your spirit in just one month; to drink nothing but cold moun­tain water and eat nothing but goat meat for thirty days in any of the former Soviet
republics is to truly strengthen your character in a similarly spartan manner."

"The pies Mother cooled in the window on Christmas Day in the dead of a bleak winter in the 1990s after a long bout with an insidious form of tropical parasitic infection was delicious."

I couldn't make heads or tails out of these. After seeing the answer, I can sort of say: yea, I guess that makes sense. But before the fact, I can only stare at this sentence.

Another:
"Because his jokes were so offensive, we left before the show ended."

I think because and before are prepositions, but which are the prepositional phrases?

Hi ccooley,

Thanks for replying. Sure, for example:

"To run with the wolves on thirty consecutive cold winter mornings in Minsk, Belarus, is to truly strengthen your spirit in just one month; to drink nothing but cold moun­tain water and eat nothing but goat meat for thirty days in any of the former Soviet
republics is to truly strengthen your character in a similarly spartan manner."

"The pies Mother cooled in the window on Christmas Day in the dead of a bleak winter in the 1990s after a long bout with an insidious form of tropical parasitic infection was delicious."

I couldn't make heads or tails out of these. After seeing the answer, I can sort of say: yea, I guess that makes sense. But before the fact, I can only stare at this sentence.


Another:
"Because his jokes were so offensive, we left before the show ended."

I think because and before are prepositions, but which are the prepositional phrases?


Hi - i will try

You are right ..because and before are the prepositions

The "phrase" is just including the object the preposition refers too ....so i have highlighted the preposition in red and underlined the 2 prepositional phrases