Confusion over Prepositional Phrases

Question

Hi,

I'm having trouble understanding "Prepositional Phrases" in Foundations of Verbal book (Manhattan). Even though it's a basic book.

Can you please point me to a source you found useful?

Also, do I need to memorize the list of propositions?

The FoV book says "Study this list. It is important to be able to recognize prepositions immediately when they appear in GMAT", and has a long list of words:

aboard about above across
after against along amid
among around as at
before behind below beneath
beside besides between beyond
but by concerning despite

(This is only a partial snippet).

Thank you!

ccooley · Answer

Can you ask a more specific question about prepositional phrases? Or share an example that you're confused by? That might help us give better answers.

I wouldn't recommend memorizing a list of prepositions. It's enough to remember that a preposition is a word that describes a relationship: for instance, 'on' is a preposition (one thing can be on another), 'for' is a preposition (you can do something for someone, or for a purpose), etc.

MyGuruStefan · Answer

Hello!

To answer both of your questions in a word: no. As someone with basically a degree in editing (M.S. Journalism - Northwestern U.) I can confidently state that the  GMAT sentence corrections are not a test of grammar but rather of meaning and intent . Grammar informs clarity of meaning not the other way around. All sentences start with a subject and a verb, so every sentence correction evaluation should start there too. Rather than focusing on arcane grammar rules, such as memorizing prepositions, focus on the intended meaning of every sentence and whether or not the main subject and predicate are clearly conjoined. From there, continue by evaluating easy to determine qualities of the sentence such as the correct verb tense, pronoun usage, modifier placement, and parallel construction. Also, by not focusing on arbitrary grammar rules you will be less apt to miss simple word changes (such as switching "inseparable" to "separable" in OG 668) that are easy to identify as incorrect changes in meaning.

Hopefully this helps and good luck on your GMAT journey!

ydmuley · Answer

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.

EducationAisle · Answer

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.

omegan3 · Answer

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?

jabhatta2 · Answer

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

Confusion over Prepositional Phrases

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