The influence of the individual is nowhere so sensible as at school. There the personal qualities strike without any intervening and counteracting cases.

Adjective: An adjective modifies (limits or describes) a noun or a pronoun. Essentially, it provides more information about a person, place, or thing. For instance, in the sentence Ryan is a tall, skinny man, both tall and skinny are adjectives as they are used to describe Ryan. It is so hot many consider this contumelious heat. Contumelious is the adjective because it describes what type of heat we are experiencing.

Adverb: Similar to adjectives, an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.  In the sentence my son walked slowly towards the door, the word slowly serves as an adverb since it describes how she walked.

Preposition: A preposition shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence. This relationship is spatial, temporal, or directional. For instance, in the sentence Ryan walked towards the house, the word towards is a preposition since it shows direction. When linked with nouns or pronouns, prepositions create word groups referred to as prepositional phrases. (In the previous example, towards the house is a prepositional phrase.)

Locating Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases are among the easiest structures in English to learn. Remember that phrase is just a group of words (at least two) without a subject and a verb. And do not let the term like prepositional scare you. If you look in the middle of that long word, you will find a familiar one—position. In English, we tell the position of people and things in sentences using prepositional phrases. Look at the following sentence with its prepositional phrases in parentheses:

Our field trip (to the desert) begins (at 5:00) (in the morning) (on Friday).

One phrase tells where the field trip is going (to the desert), and three phrases tell when the trip begins (at 5:00, in the morning, and on Friday). As you can see, prepositional phrases show the position of someone or something in space or time.

Here is a list of prepositions that can show positions in space:

Under, around, through, above, below, between.

Across, by, beyond, among, near, with.

Outside, inside, over, on, behind, from.

Against, at, below, in, past, to.

Here are prepositions that can show positions in time:

Before, after, since.

Throughout, by, at.

Past, until, during.

Within, in, for.

These lists include only individual words, not phrases. Remember, a preposition must be followed by an object—someone or something—to create a prepositional phrase. Notice that in the added prepositional phrase that follow, the position of the plane in relation to the object, the clouds, changes completely.

The passenger plane flew above the clouds.

below the clouds.

within the clouds.

between the clouds.

past the clouds.

around the clouds.

Now notice the different positions in time:

The plane landed at 3:30.

by 3.30.

past 3.30.

before the thunderstorm.

during the thunderstorm.

after the thunderstorm.

NOTE- A few words—such as of, as, and like—are prepositions that do not fit neatly into either the space or time category, yet they are very common prepositions (box of candy, note of apology, type of BMW—act as a substitute, use as an example, as happy as my little brother—vitamins like A, C, and E, shaped like a watermelon, moved like a snake).

By locating prepositional phrases, you will be able to find subjects and verbs more easily. For example, you might have difficulty finding the subject and verb in a long sentence like this:

After the rainy season, one of the windows in the attic leaked at the corners of its molding.

However, if you put parentheses around all the prepositional phrases like this

(After the rainy season) one (of the windows) (in the attic) leaked (at the corners) (of its molding).

then you only have two words left—the subject and the verb. Even in short sentences like the following, you might pick the wrong words as the subject if you do not put parentheses around the prepositional phrases first.

Many (of the characters) survived (in that movie).

The waves (around the ship) looked real.

NOTE- Do not mistake to plus a verb for a prepositional phrase. For example, to quit is not a prepositional phrase because quit is not the name of something. It is a form of verb.

College discipline should imitate the World in this respect: it should develop every person’s peculiar genius. Neglect of this is the true reason why so many people distinguish themselves in the World, who were considered mules in college, and why so many who were considered amazingly clever in college, are found to be little better than mules in the World.