preposition

See also: pre-position and préposition

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio, praepositionem, from praepono (“to place before”), equivalent to pre- +‎ position. Compare French préposition. So called because it is placed before the word with which it is phrased, as in a bridge of iron, he comes from town, it is good for food, he escaped by running.

Alternative forms

• præposition (archaic)

Pronunciation

• enPR: prĕp-ə-zĭsh'ən, IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

Examples (strict sense)
under the table in my pocket past noon on top of the fridge owing to the rain

preposition (plural prepositions)

1. (grammar, strict sense) Any of a class of non-inflecting words and multiword terms typically employed to connect a following noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word: a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word.
   • 1844, E. A. Andrews, First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, 6th edition, Boston, page 91:

     322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 9, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 495:

     And in (121) below, we see that when a wh-NP is used as the Object of a Preposition, the whole Prepositional Phrase can undergo WH MOVEMENT:
     (121) (a)      [To whom] can I send this letter —?
     (121) (b)      [About what] are they quarrelling —?
     (121) (c)      [In which book] did you read about it —?

   • 2014 June 1, “Net Neutrality”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 5, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     I love this girl. “On which I can get my hands” — even in her darkest moment, she cannot bring herself to end a sentence with a preposition.

2. (grammar, broad sense) An adposition.
3. (obsolete) A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.
   • 1811 [1516], Robert Fabyan, edited by Sir Henry Ellis, The New Chronicles of England and France‎^[1], page 116:

     […] he made a longe preposicion & oracion cōcernynge yͤ allegiaūce which he exortyd his lordes to owe

Hypernyms

• (grammar, strict sense): adposition; part of speech; term; word

Hyponyms

• (grammar, strict sense): intransitive preposition, phrasal preposition, preposition of place

Coordinate terms

• (grammar, strict sense): circumposition
• (grammar, strict sense): postposition

Derived terms

terms derived from preposition (noun)

• intransitive preposition
• preposition of time
• preposition of place
• prepositional
• prepositionally
• prepositional phrase
• phrasal preposition

Related terms

terms related to preposition (noun)

• prepose
• prepositive

Translations

grammar: a type of word like "of, from, for, by"

• Afrikaans: voorsetsel (af)
• Albanian: parafjalë (sq) f
• Amharic: መስተዋድድ (mästäwadd)
• Arabic: جَارّ (ar) m (jārr), حَرْف جَرّ m (ḥarf jarr)

  Egyptian Arabic: حرف جر m (ḥarff garr)

• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: կապ (hy) (kap), նախդիր (hy) (naxdir)
• Asturian: preposición (ast) f
• Azerbaijani: sözönü
• Belarusian: прыназо́ўнік m (prynazóŭnik)
• Bengali: পদান্বয়ী অব্যয় (podannoẏi obboẏ)
• Breton: araogenn (br)
• Bulgarian: предло́г (bg) m (predlóg)
• Burmese: ဝိဘတ် (my) (wi.bhat) (postpositional marker, equivalent of a preposition in Burmese)
• Catalan: preposició (ca) f
• Chechen: предлог (predlog)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 介詞 / 介词 (gaai³ ci⁴), 前置詞 / 前置词 (cin⁴ zi³ ci⁴)

  Mandarin: 介詞 / 介词 (zh) (jiècí), 前置詞 / 前置词 (zh) (qiánzhìcí)

• Czech: předložka (cs) f
• Danish: forholdsord n, præposition (da) c
• Dutch: voorzetsel (nl) n, kastwoord n
• Esperanto: prepozicio (eo)
• Estonian: eessõna
• Faroese: fyriseting f
• Finnish: prepositio (fi)
• French: préposition (fr)
• Galician: preposición (gl) f
• Georgian: წინდებული (c̣indebuli), პრეპოზიცია (ṗreṗozicia)
• German: Präposition (de) f, Verhältniswort (de), Vorwort (de), Lagewort (de)
• Greek: πρόθεση (el) f (próthesi)

  Ancient: πρόθεσις f (próthesis)

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: ʻinaleo, ʻinawaena
• Hebrew: מילת יחס / מִלַּת יַחַס (he) f (milát yákhas)
• Hindi: पूर्वसर्ग m (pūrvasarg)
• Hungarian: elöljáró (hu), elöljárószó (hu)
• Icelandic: forsetning (is) f
• Ido: prepoziciono (io)
• Indonesian: kata depan, kata depan (id)
• Ingrian: prepositsia, esisana
• Interlingua: preposition (ia)
• Irish: réamhfhocal (ga) m
• Italian: preposizione (it) f
• Japanese: 前置詞 (ja) (ぜんちし, zenchishi)
• Kazakh: предлог (predlog), демеулік (demeulık)
• Khmer: ធ្នាក់ (km) (thnĕək)
• Korean: 전치사(前置詞) (ko) (jeonchisa)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: daçek (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: предлог (ky) (predlog)
• Lao: ຄຳເຊື່ອມ (kham sư̄am)
• Latin: praepositio (la) f
• Latvian: prievārds (lv) m, prepozīcija (lv) f
• Ligurian: prepoxiçión f
• Lithuanian: prielinksnis (lt) m
• Macedonian: предлог m (predlog)
• Malay: kata depan
• Malayalam: ഗതി (ml) (gati)
• Middle English: preposicion
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: угтвар үг (ugtvar üg)

• Norman: préposition f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: preposisjon (no) m

  Nynorsk: preposisjon (nn) m

• Old English: fōresetnes f
• Pannonian Rusyn: применовнїк m (primenovnjik)
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: حَرْفِ اِضافِه (harf-e ezâfe)

• Polish: przyimek (pl) m
• Portuguese: preposição (pt) f
• Romanian: prepoziție (ro) f
• Russian: предло́г (ru) m (predlóg)
• Scottish Gaelic: roimhear m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пре́длог m, прије́длог m, препози́ција f

  Roman: prédlog m, prijédlog (sh) m, prepozícija (sh) f

• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: predložka f
• Slovene: prêdlog (sl) m
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: preposición (es) f
• Swahili: kihusishi
• Swedish: preposition (sv) c
• Tagalog: pang-ukol (tl)
• Tajik: пешоянд (tg) (pešoyand)
• Thai: บุพบท (th) (bùp-pá-bòt), บุรพบท (th) (bù-rá-pá-bòt)
• Tigrinya: መስተዋድድ (ti) (mästäwadd)
• Turkish: ilgeç (tr), edat (tr)
• Turkmen: predlog, prepozisiýa
• Ukrainian: прийме́нник (uk) m (pryjménnyk)
• Urdu: حَرْفِ جار m (harf-i jār), حَرْفِ جَر m (harf-i jar)
• Uyghur: ئالدى قوشۇلغۇچى (aldi qoshulghuchi)
• Uzbek: predlog
• Vietnamese: giới từ (vi) (介詞)
• Volapük: präpod (vo)
• Walloon: divancete (wa) f
• Welsh: arddodiad m
• West Frisian: ferhâldingswurd (fy) n
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: פּרעפּאָזיציע f (prepozitsye)
• Yoruba: ọ̀rọ̀-atọ́kùn
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

See also

• preverb

Etymology 2

From pre- +‎ position.

Alternative forms

• pre-position

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːpəˌzɪʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Verb

preposition (third-person singular simple present prepositions, present participle prepositioning, simple past and past participle prepositioned)

1. (sometimes proscribed) Alternative spelling of pre-position.

   It is important to preposition the material before turning on the machine.

Translations

to place in a location before some other event occurs

• French: prépositionner (fr)
• Portuguese: pré-posicionar

Finnish

Noun

preposition

1. genitive singular of prepositio

Interlingua

Noun

preposition (plural prepositiones)

1. (grammar) A word that is used in conjunction with a noun or pronoun in order to form a phrase.

Swedish

Noun

preposition c

1. a preposition (part of speech)

Declension

Declension of preposition

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	preposition	prepositions
	definite	prepositionen	prepositionens
plural	indefinite	prepositioner	prepositioners
	definite	prepositionerna	prepositionernas

Related terms

• prepositionell
• prepositionsadverbial
• prepositionsattribut
• prepositionsuttryck

References

• preposition in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)