What is this skill?
A preposition is a small word that links a noun to the rest of the sentence and tells where or when. Under, across, behind, over, near, through, on and at tell where. Before, after and during tell when. Children use these words all day long ("The cat slept under the table") without ever having to name them, and fourth grade is when they learn to find them in writing.
In this practice the child reads a sentence and picks the preposition from four words, such as under in "The cat slept under the table," across in "Maya walked across the bridge," and during in "During the storm, we read books." The earlier ones use words like after, for, behind, at and on, and the later ones add over, before, near and through. A second kind of question gives scrambled word tiles and the child taps them into a sentence, such as "Jamal rode his bike to school" or "A ball rolled under the couch."
Why it matters
Prepositions are some of the most useful little words in English, and a writer who uses them well can say exactly where and when. "The ball rolled under the couch" and "The ball rolled over the couch" are two very different events.
A prepositional phrase, such as "under the old oak tree," is also a building block for longer sentences. Children who find these phrases can add detail to a plain sentence, and they can also see why a phrase alone is not a sentence, a link to fragments.
Finding the preposition is also a reading skill. When a long sentence feels tangled, a child who can spot "before sunrise" or "through the sprinkler" can see which part says where or when and which part says who did what.
Common mistakes
- Picking the noun after the preposition. In "The cat slept under the table," table is a noun, and the preposition is under. The preposition comes before the noun.
- Picking the verb. Words like slept, put and rode name an action, and the preposition is the word that tells where it happened.
- Missing time words. Before, after and during are prepositions, as in "We will leave before sunrise," and a child who thinks of prepositions as only place words will miss them.
- Ending a phrase early, as in "We hid behind." The preposition needs its noun, so ask "behind what?" and add the tree or the rock.
How to help at home
- Play "where is it?" with a stuffed animal. Put it on the table, under the chair, behind the door, and have your child say the sentence.
- Try the old trick: anything a squirrel can do to a tree (up, around, through, past, under) is probably a preposition.
- Ask your child to add where or when to a plain sentence. "The dog ran" becomes "The dog ran through the sprinkler."
- Look for prepositions in a favorite picture book, one page at a time, and have your child underline them.
Worked examples
These are real questions from the Tutorsaurus prepositions practice, with the answers worked out.
Example 1
Which word is the preposition here?
Maya walked across the bridge.
Choices: bridge, walked, across, Maya
Answer: across. Across is the preposition. It tells where Maya walked.
Example 2
Arrange the words into a sentence.
The pieces, mixed up: hid / the / tree / big / behind / We
Answer: We hid behind the big tree. We hid behind the big tree. The prepositional phrase is "behind the big tree."
Example 3
Make a sentence from these words.
The pieces, mixed up: ball / under / couch / the / rolled / A
Answer: A ball rolled under the couch. A ball rolled under the couch. The prepositional phrase is "under the couch."
Printable worksheet (PDF) — one page of questions from this practice that work on paper, easier ones first, with an answer key on page 2. Free to print, no sign-up.