First Grammar Lessons: Part II, Lesson IX

Lesson IX

You remember that verbs are of two kinds, the transitive verbs, that cannot make sense without an object, and the intransitive verbs, that cannot have an object:

Uncle went.

He could not went anything, because went is intransitive, and cannot have an object.

There is, however, a family of little words much attached to intransitive verbs, which, though they have not much meaning in themselves, are very useful, because one of them cannot come into a sentence without carrying an object after it.

“Uncle went” is not very good sense. We must see what can be done to give it an object.

We cannot say: Uncle went Brighton, but:

Uncle went to Brighton.

“          “          with Aunt.
“          “          by rail.
“          “          in a carriage.
“          “          through the fields.
“          “          over the wall.
“          “          near the horse.
“          “          for a walk.
“          “          into his room.
“          “          beyond Broadwater.

These words always take objects after them, and because their place is before the object, they are called prepositions.

Position, you know, is another word for place, and pre- is the Latin word for before.

To be learnt.

A preposition always has an object after it.

Exercise IX

1. Complete the following sentences by supplying a preposition and its object:

The cow ran _____.
The bell rang _____.
The children sang _____.
Flowers grow _____.
Water flows _____.

2. Make sentences using the following prepositions, and underline their objects:

to, by, with, under, through, near, over, into.

3. Make four sentences, introducing a preposition and its object into each.

4. Pick out the prepositions and their objects from a page in one of your reading books. Write them in two columns opposite to one another.