A preposition is a word or group of words used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an object.
Another way to think about preposition is as a kind of grammatical swiss-army knife - providing a variety of services for verbs and nouns. Indicating direction for example.
The train is travelling to London from Birmingham. The ship sailed across the sea.
Or in a prepositional phrase: into the traffic/at this moment/in the dark/with his family.
English language students quickly become familiar with the preposition to used in the infinitive form of a verb I want to go to Spain. The infinitive without to (or bare infinitive) is used with modal verbs (could, would, should etc) and some notable exceptions, including help, let and make (He let me have it./I helped her choose.
Idioms
How many prepositions are there?
- above, across, against, along, among, around, at,
- before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by,
- down, from,
- in, into,
- near,
- of, off, on,
- to, toward,
- under, upon,
- with, within