preposition

See also: préposition

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio, praepositionem, from praepono (“to place before”). 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

preposition (plural prepositions)

1. (grammar, strict sense) Any of a class of non-inflecting words 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.
   • 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, 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, Sir Henry Ellis, editor, 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

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

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 الْجَرّ‎ m (ḥarf al-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: সহাস্যে (śohasśe)
• 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: предложени (predloženi)
• Chinese:

  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 (milat yakhas)
• Hindi: पूर्वसर्ग m (pūrvasarg)
• Hungarian: elöljáró (hu), elöljárószó (hu)
• Icelandic: forsetning (is) f
• Ido: prepoziciono (io)
• Indonesian: kata depan, kata depan (id)
• 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) (thneak)
• 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 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: угтвар үг (ugtvar üg)
• Norman: préposition f
• Norwegian: preposisjon (no) m
• Old English: fōresetnes f
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: حرف اضافه‎ (fa) (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: предлог m, приједлог m, препозиција f

  Roman: predlog m, prijedlog (sh) m, prepozicija (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: prepozisiýa, predlog
• Ukrainian: прийме́нник (uk) m (pryjménnyk)
• Urdu: حرف جار‎ (harf-e jār), حرف جر‎ (harf-e jarr)
• 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

pre- +‎ position

Alternative forms

• pre-position

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːpəˌzɪʃən/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Verb

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

1. To place in a location before some other event occurs.

   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
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	preposition	prepositionen	prepositioner	prepositionerna
Genitive	prepositions	prepositionens	prepositioners	prepositionernas

Related terms

• prepositionell
• prepositionsadverbial
• prepositionsattribut
• prepositionsuttryck

References

• preposition in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)