Writer's Choice Grade 6

Unit 14: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections

Overview

Prepositions are words that link a noun or pronoun to another word in a sentence. Some examples of prepositions include above, below, and behind. A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or a pronoun. The noun or pronoun at the end of the prepositional phrase is called the object of the preposition. For example, "The martial artist broke the board with his foot." With is the preposition and foot is the object of the preposition. Whenever a pronoun is the object of the preposition, remember to use an object pronoun like me, instead of a subject pronoun like I (see Unit 11). The following example correctly uses an object pronoun as the object of the preposition to. "Jessica bowed to me."

Prepositional phrases can be used like adjectives to describe a noun or a pronoun. For example, "The champion with the black belt is very skilled at karate." The prepositional phrase with the black belt describes the noun the champion. Prepositional phrases can also be used like adverbs to describe a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. In the next example, the prepositional phrase acts like an adverb: "The belt wraps around the waist. " Around the waist describes the verb wraps.

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if a word is a preposition or an adverb. Study this sentence: "We practiced outside the studio." To decide if outside is used as a preposition or an adverb, look at the other words in the sentence. Is outside followed closely by a noun? It is, so in this sentence, outside is a preposition. If the word is not followed closely by a noun, then it's probably an adverb. For example, "We practiced outside."

Conjunctions are words that join other words in a sentence. The most common ones are called coordinating conjunctions. They include and, but, and or, and can be used to join multiple subjects, predicates, or sentences. Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunction words that join the same kinds of words as other conjunctions. Some examples of correlative conjunctions are either/or and neither/nor.

Prepositions and conjunctions make sentences flow more smoothly. Interjections interrupt them. An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses strong feeling. Some examples include: "Ouch!", "Oh, no!", and "Aha!"