Copyright © 2015 by Sharon Serrago, Inc Page 145
Trying to be sure the subject and the verb agree may seem like a simple task, but for many students
the task becomes complicated because of the difficulty in actually identifying the subject in the first
place. It’s easy enough to make the subject and verb agree you are looking at a very simple sentence,
but in a complicated sentence structure like you will find on the SAT, finding the subject is not such
an easy task at all.
There are some ways to make that task easier. First, you should eliminate constructions in the
sentences that you know can’t be the subject. One of the things we can eliminate is the prepositional
phrase. There may be several of them in one sentence. In fact, the more sophisticated the sentence, the
more propositional phrases the sentence is likely to have. Once you eliminate all prepositional
phrases, finding the subject will be much easier.
Let’s review what you already know about prepositions, and then we will move on to prepositional
phrases. A preposition is a word that shows a relationship to another word in the sentence. Many
prepositions show a spatial relationship to another word. Take a look at
this cat and the tree.
Any position the cat can have in relation to the tree is going to be a
preposition. For instance, the cat can be beside the tree, in the tree, on the
tree. Look at the prepositions that can express a spatial relationship: over,
above, under, underneath, between, by, beneath, to, from. He can go up,
down, into, out, through, across, along, around, beneath, beside, behind
the tree. These are only a few prepositions. There are others such as like, with, without, to, about,
after, during, following, concerning, regarding, aboard, against, amid among, around, at,
before, below, beyond, but, considering, despite, except, excluding, for, of, inside, near, off,
onto, outside, past, per, plus, round, save, since, toward, unlike, upon, versus, via, within.
We also have a compound prepositions, two or more words commonly used as a single
preposition: on top of, according to, along with, apart from, by virtue of, due to, except for, in
addition to, in between, out of. There are more, but you will be able to recognize them.
1. He ran on the sidewalk.
2. The child jumped into the hole.
3. Before class, the children walked slowly down the hall.
4. Beside the road lay the old cart.
5. The cat sat on the shelf above the door.
6. Into the room they calmly strolled.
7. Under no circumstances are you to touch that glass sitting on the table.
8. He saw the book on top of the desk in his friend’s room.
9. We built the tree house for the child.
10. With a big crash, the tree toppled onto the garage.
Let’s Practice – Finding Prepositions
Underline the prepositions in the following sentences.
Subjects and Prepositional Phrases