a orb anbwithout or negative “apolitical”ante

dis
apart: “dislocate”
ex
from, out of sometimes spelled e: exhale, evade”
hyper
more than, over “hypertext”
hypo
less than, under “hypoallergenic”
inter
among, between “interact”
il
not: illegitimate also spelled im, in, and ir in some words:
“impatient,” incontinent “irrelevant”
mal
wrong, badly “maladroit”
mega
large, million “megabits”
micro
small: “microcomputer”
milli
thousand: “millipede”
mis
wrong, bad “misnomer”
mono
one, single “monofilament”
neo
new: “neoconservative”
non
not: “nonstarter”
omni
all, total “omnivorous”
post
after: “postwar”
pre
before: “premarital”
pro
before, forward “propound”
re
again, back “retell”
self
oneself or itself (usually used with a hyphen “self-centered”
semi
half: “semilegal”
sub
under: “submicroscopic”
super
above: “superconductor”
syn
simultaneously: “synchronic” also spelled sym: “symphony”
trans
across: “translate”
tri
three, triple “trilateral”

un
not: “unattractive”
uni
one, single “unilateral”
Preposition. Prepositions are words that indicate a relationship between two or more things and/or people but not an action. They specify direction, scope, timing,
and other aspects of action or condition by linking a noun to another noun, verb, or
adverb.
The most common prepositions are the following about, above, across, after,
against, along, among, around, as, at, below, before, behind, beneath, beside, between,
beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, o , on, onto,
out, outside, over, past, since, through, toward, under, until, up, with, without.
Prepositions and the nouns and other words that they govern make prepositional
phrases that function as adjectives or adverbs. In the following arti cial example, the many prepositional phrases play various roles that are explained after the example:
“Toward evening, the elephant walked into the clearing and trumpeted to the skies above us its disapproval of our presence in its realm.”
“Toward evening is an adverbial prepositional phrase modifying walked Although it comes before
“elephant,” it does not modify it, since living beings cannot have the kind of time relationship indicated by the phrase except through some action. Therefore the phrase modi es the action despite the sentence’s word order (see modifier and order of words)
“into the clearing is another adverbial phrase that deals with walked and indicates direction rather than time
“to the skies is another adverb use of a prepositional phrase, here modifying “trumpeted”
“above us modi es the noun skies in the phrase before it, and even though that phrase is adverbial,
this one is adjectival (since a noun is the thing qualified)
“of our presence is adjectival in function, modifying “disapproval”
“in its realm is also adjectival, here relating to the noun in the preceding prepositional phrase,
“presence.”
Note that prepositions govern the objective case, which means that pronouns that are the objects of prepositions change form tore ect their case: I gave it to them The function of the prepositional phrase in the sentence does not change this rule—all objects of prepositions are in the objective case.
Prepositional phrases placed at the beginning of sentences can beset o with
commas in the following circumstances if they are nonrestrictive phrases (contribute less than essential information to the sentence like Toward evening in the example if they are long (though just what is long is a matter of judgment or if not setting them o would confuse the reader (often true when the prepositional phrases are fairly faraway from what they modify. Putting prepositional phrases at

the beginning of sentences is a useful way to emphasize something or vary style to sustain reader interest (see emphasis).
Like all sentence elements with varying roles and exible positioning within a sentence, prepositional phrases can be put in the wrong place or in a place that confuses the reader. If, in the example, the phrase toward evening appeared as the last words in the sentence, it would be hard to know what was happening at that time or what was being modi ed by the phrases our presence or its realm”
(presuming the elephant had a daytime realm. Check all sentences that have prepositional phrases to see that they are placed and worded so that it is clear what they are referring to (see clarity).
When prepositions appear in names or titles that are capitalized, the prepositions should not be capitalized whatever their length or function, unless they are the rst word in the title (On Golden Pond) or are the subject themselves of the title in someway (The Grammar of To. See capitalization.

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