Writer's Choice Grade 7

Unit 13: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections

Overview

Each word in a sentence performs a particular job, and each word can be put into a particular category called a part of speech. This unit discusses a few of these parts of speech, including prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

A preposition is a word that relates a noun or a pronoun to some other word in the sentence. Consider the following: "Jamal hit the ball over the fence." In this example, over is a preposition. It shows the relationship between the ball and the fence.

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or a pronoun. In the example above, the prepositional phrase is over the fence. The noun at the end of the sentence—in this case fence—is called the object of the preposition. When a pronoun is the object of a preposition, remember to use an object pronoun (me) and not a subject pronoun (I). "Cordelia threw the ball to me."

A prepositional phrase can function as an adjective by modifying or describing a noun or a pronoun. For example, "That player from the other team was quite good." A prepositional phrase can also function as an adverb, modifying a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. "The manager sat in the bull pen." In the bull pen modifies the verb sat by answering the question where.

Conjunctions are used to connect words or phrases. A coordinating conjunction is a single word that connects other words or phrases. And, but, for, or, yet, so, and nor are coordinating conjunctions. Correlative conjunctions are pairs of words that connect other words or phrases. Some correlative conjunctions are or/nor, either/both, neither/nor, and not only/but also.

An interjection expresses strong feeling. Interjections work alone and have no grammatical connection to other words in the sentence. Gee, oh, well, wow, and ha are common interjections.