Parts of Speech You Should Know
Prepositions
These are the most often used:
Above, across, after, along, among, around, at, away, before, behind, below, beside between, beyond, by, down, during, for, from, in, inside, into, near, of, off, on, outside, over, past, since, through, till, to, toward, under, until, upon, with, within, without. There are plenty more. See O' Connor pp. 212-13.
He went into the battle with thoughts only about his sweetheart pining at home in her room under the bed.
Gerunds and Present Participles
Both are constructed by taking the root verb and adding the ending –ing.
Gerunds are verbal nouns—they and the phrases they begin function like nouns in a sentence, which means that they appear as subjects and objects.
His singing is horrid. Singing in this sentence is the subject of the sentence.
I hate his singing. In this case ‘singing’ is the object of the verb ‘hate’.
I don’t like listening to his singing. In this sentence ‘singing’ is the object of the preposition ‘to’ while ‘listening’ is the object of the verb ‘like.’
Gerunds can also introduce phrases:
Shooting the pier is a surfing thrill. The whole gerund phrase ‘shooting the pier’ is the subject of the sentence. ‘Surfing’ is a participle—see below.
I love shooting the pier. Here’s it’s the direct object
His shooting the pier showed his surfing skill. Subject of the sentence.
Notice that pier in this gerund phrase is the object of the gerund—it’s receiving the action of the “shooting.”
Present Participles have two main functions: as simple adjectives, introducers of modifying participial phrases, and as a part of the verb in the progressive tenses.
Adjective: swimming pool, living legend, batting cage,
Participial phrase: I saw him walking down the street. (walking down the street modifies ‘him’.)
We saw several students registering late for class.
Progressive tenses: I am thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I have been thinking about it. I will be thinking about it. Etc.
Practice
Identify the underlined parts of speech in the following sentences. If you find a preposition, identify its object.:
They toyed with the idea amorously.
These sale prices are available at participating stores.
There is no talking him out of it.
They waddled down the trail to the ruins.
He saw me offering him a helping hand.
He saw my offering him a helping hand.
His walking into the room startled me.
Layoffs are going to be hard on everyone.