There are two indefinite articles in English: “a” and “an.” The indefinite articles are used to introduce a noun for the first time or to refer to nouns that are not specific (e.g., “a stray dog”).
Once a noun has been introduced, the definite article “the” is used (e.g., “the stray dog I adopted”).
All prepositions show the relationship between two parts of a phrase or sentence. Prepositions of time express when something happens.
The three most common prepositions of time are in, on, and at. They are used with specific units of time, as shown in the following table.
| Preposition | Used with | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| On | Days | The test is on Tuesday.
I leave for Paris on the 15th. |
| At | Specific times of day and the general “night” | The show starts at 7:30 p.m.
I went to bed at midnight. You shouldn’t drink coffee at night. |
| In | Months, years, seasons, general times of day (besides night) | Easter is in March this year.
She graduated in 2022. I plan to travel in the summer. Do you wake up early in the morning? |
Other examples of prepositions of time include “since” (e.g., “since last week”), “for,” (e.g., “for a year”), and “until” (e.g., “until midnight”).
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No, the word “for” is not a verb; it is a preposition. Prepositions are words that demonstrate a relationship between two parts of a phrase or sentence.
“For” is a very flexible preposition that can be used to indicate purpose, (e.g., “a tool for pulling weeds”), direction (e.g., “we headed for California”), or recipient (e.g., “a gift for you”), among many other uses.
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No, the word “of” is not a verb; it is a preposition. Prepositions are words that demonstrate a relationship between two parts of a phrase or sentence.
“Of” is a very flexible preposition that can be used to indicate possession (e.g., “the title of the book”), composition (e.g., “a mountain of dirt”), or group (e.g., “most of the respondents”), among many other uses.
“Of” is also often used in combination with other prepositions (e.g., “out of the window,” “in front of me”).
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No, the word “with” is not a verb; it is a preposition. Prepositions are words that demonstrate a relationship between two parts of a phrase or sentence. “With” often gives information about location, whether literal (e.g., “put that one with the others”) or more figurative (e.g., “Who is with me?”).
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No, the word “on” is not a verb; it is a preposition. Prepositions are words that demonstrate a relationship between two parts of a phrase or sentence. “On” often gives information about location (e.g., “on the table”) or time (e.g., “on Monday”).
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No, the word “in” is not a verb; it is a preposition. Prepositions are words that demonstrate a relationship between two parts of a phrase or sentence. “In” often gives information about location (e.g., “in the vase”) or time (e.g., “in the morning”).
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No, the word “the” is not a verb. It is an article (along with “a” and “an”). Articles come before a noun to show whether it is general or specific.
“The” is a definite article, which means it refers to one specific person or thing (e.g., “the dog I saw yesterday”).
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An appositive noun is a noun or noun phrase that appears straight after another noun to specify what it refers to or provide more information.
If the appositive provides essential information (that is, it wouldn’t be clear whom or what you were talking about without it), then no punctuation is used to separate it from the surrounding words: “Your friend David is here to see you.”
If the appositive just provides extra information that isn’t essential to the meaning of the sentence, it’s set off with commas: “My hometown, Lochem, is quite small.”
A noun phrase is any series of words in a sentence that collectively functions as a noun. For instance, the sentence “My apartment has three windows” contains two noun phrases: “my apartment” and “three windows.”
A noun phrase contains at least one noun or pronoun and all the other words (e.g., determiners, articles, adjectives, prepositions) that modify it.
Noun phrases can be long and complex. For instance, in the sentence “The fact that I can’t attend your party tomorrow is regrettable,” the subject of the sentence is the long noun phrase “the fact that I can’t attend your party tomorrow.”
An attributive noun is used is a noun that’s placed before another noun to modify it, in the same way as an adjective. For example, in the phrase “teacher training,” the noun “teacher” is used attributively to modify another noun, “training.”
Attributive nouns are not exactly the same as adjectives. A big difference is that they can only be used in the attributive position—before the noun they modify—and not in the predicative position.
For example, you can write either “extensive training” or “training that is extensive”; but you can’t write “training that is teacher.” This is because “teacher” is just an attributive noun, not a true adjective.
Everyone is an indefinite pronoun meaning “every person.” Indefinite pronouns are nonspecific, and the meaning of “everyone” can vary depending on the context.
For example, it can be used to refer to every person in a particular group (e.g., “everyone at the party had a great time”) or more generally to refer to every person in the world (e.g., “everyone needs to drink water to stay alive”).
People sometimes confuse everyone and every one. However, the indefinite pronoun is always written as one word.
These is a demonstrative pronoun, like this, that, and those. As a plural demonstrative pronoun, “these” is used to refer to a group of people or things that has been previously mentioned or that is understood from the context.
“These” is used to refer to objects or people that are near in space or time (e.g., “If you want to borrow a book, you can borrow one of these”). For objects or people that are farther away in space or time, the demonstrative pronoun “those” is used (e.g., “There are some books on the table. You can’t borrow those”).
Adverbs can be classified in many ways. Depending on context, some adverbs fall into more than one of the categories.
Examples of adverb types include the following:
There are a number of different types of determiners, including
There are well over 100 prepositions in English. They can be loosely grouped according to function. Below are some of the most common ones.
| Location | above, at, below, beside, between, by, on, over, out, under |
| Time | after, at, before, by, during, in, on, since, until |
| Direction | across, around, down, into, past, through, to, toward |
| Other relationships | about, as, by, for, from, of, with |
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The rules of capitalizing prepositions in titles are quite complex and often depend on the particular style guide you are following.
In general, prepositions of three or fewer letters (e.g., “in,” “to,” “for”) are not capitalized in titles unless they are the first or last word of the title (e.g., On the Banks of Plum Creek).
For longer prepositions (e.g., “through,” “with,” “between”), the rules vary based on which style guide you are using:
Additionally, preposition words are often capitalized in titles when they are acting as verb particles in a phrasal verb (e.g., Wake Up and Live).
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Yes, you can end a sentence with a preposition (e.g., “Which meeting are you going to?”).
In the past, some sources recommended keeping a preposition with its object (e.g., “To which meeting are you going?”), but this sounds unnatural and overly formal.
Even in academic writing, it is completely acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition.
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Yes, because is a subordinating conjunction. It is used to introduce a dependent clause that gives a reason for/cause of something (e.g., “The picnic is canceled because rain is forecast”).
Note that the phrase because of is not a subordinating conjunction. It functions as a preposition meaning “on account of” (e.g., “The picnic is canceled because of the rain”).
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No, which is classified as a relative pronoun. Although a relative clause is a type of dependent clause, a relative pronoun is not the same as a subordinating conjunction because it acts as a subject/object or refers back to a noun, whereas a subordinating conjunction is a linking device.
It is also used as an interrogative word (e.g., “Which shirt looks best?”).
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Yes, when is a subordinating conjunction used to introduce a dependent clause that gives information about time (e.g., “They continued when the storm was over”).
It is also used as an interrogative adverb in questions about time (e.g., “When do you want to eat?”). And it can function as a relative adverb to specify a time (e.g., “I remember the day when I was given my first cell phone”).
The QuillBot Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using subordinating conjunctions, interrogative adverbs, and relative adverbs correctly.
No, “since” is not a coordinating conjunction. It functions as a subordinating conjunction in sentences like these:
No, “however” is not a coordinating conjunction. Instead, it is classified as a conjunctive adverb or a discourse marker when used in sentences like this: “However, I would not recommend using the product to clean plastic surfaces.”
No, “because” is not a coordinating conjunction. Instead, it is classified as a subordinating conjunction when used in sentences like this: “I bought this phone because it has a good battery.”
The inclusion of “because” in the clause “because it has a good battery” makes it a dependent clause. This clause cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and relies on the independent clause “I bought this phone” to complete its meaning.
Yes, “but” is a coordinating conjunction.
It is used to connect grammatically equal clauses (independent clauses), phrases, and words (e.g., “The film was good but long”).
Cardinal numbers (“one,” “two,” “three,” etc.) can be placed before a noun to give information about quantity, and ordinal numbers (“first,” “second,” “third,” etc.) can be placed before a noun to give information about order.
While these numbers look like adjectives, they are in fact quantifiers, which is a type of determiner.