Prepositions are small words which indicate place, motion, cause, time, manner, and the like.

However, not all small words in English are prepositions, for instance, what are probably the two most frequently used small words in English “the” and “a/n,” which represent a different part of speech, what grammarians call “articles.”

Another type of small word which isn’t a preposition is called a “conjunction,” e.g. “and, or, but, since.” Conjunctions link two or more things, actions, ideas, etc. Yet another type of small word that’s not a preposition is the adverb. Adverbs include words like “very, well, soon, there, now,” and in the same way that adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Adverbs are yet another part of speech.

Finally, interjections are also small words that aren’t prepositions. Interjections include exclamations like “oh!, darn!, ouch!, please!.” These are often associated with the expression of strong emotion or surprise, or pleading. Thus, they’re often followed by an exclamation point. Zounds!

The basic function of prepositions is to show how a noun relates to the rest of the sentence. That noun is called the “object of the preposition,” which we’ll abbreviate as “OP.”

The word “preposition” means literally “pre- [“before”] -position [“placed”], because a preposition almost always precedes its object. Actually, “preposition” is kind of a dumb name for this part of speech ─ the same could be said for articles like “the” which usually precede the word they go with, and titles like “sir” as in Sir Lancelot ─ but I can’t think of any better name than preposition. To call them what they actually are, “locational-motional-causal markers,” just seems like the wrong direction to go in.