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Glite Dictionary
prepositional object

prepositional object

6.7
A noun or pronoun that comes after a preposition in a sentence
  • noun
  • /ˌprɛpəˈzɪʃənəl ˈɑbdʒɛkt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : objeto preposicional
  • In the sentence 'She spoke to her friend,' 'friend' is the prepositional object of the preposition 'to'.

Examples

  • In the sentence 'She sat on the chair,' 'chair' is a prepositional object.

  • The prepositional object typically answers the question 'what?' or 'whom?' after the preposition.

  • You must identify the prepositional object in each sentence for this exercise.

  • The word 'book' is a prepositional object in that sentence.

  • Can you identify the prepositional object in this phrase?

  • In the phrase 'He leaned against the wall,' 'wall' serves as a prepositional object.

  • For the question 'Who did you invite to the party?', 'party' is a prepositional object.

Synonyms

object of a preposition
vsprepositional object
  • Specialized
3.7

A noun or pronoun that comes after a preposition to complete its meaning

limits this to single nouns or pronouns rather than whole noun phrases

Surface Forms

prepositional object singular
prepositional objects plural

Morphology

prepositional + object

The compound is fully compositional: 'prepositional' means relating to a preposition and 'object' means a noun/pronoun functioning as a dependent. A B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer that a 'prepositional object' is an object governed by a preposition (the term is technical but semantically transparent and cross-linguistically recognizable).

Etymology

Prepositional object comes from a simple picture: a small word like 'in', 'on', or 'to', called a preposition, points to the thing that follows it, and that thing is the object. So a prepositional object is the noun or pronoun that answers 'what?' or 'whom?' after the preposition.