Prepositional Phrases - (copy)

Prepositional phrases are modifiers that add extra information. They never contain the subject or the verb of a sentence. If you clear them, the sentence still works. They often add a "chunked" up quality to a sentence, as if they are little "packets" of information. We often use parentheses to identify prepositional phrases. As you read these sentences, decide which arrangement of parentheses identifies these "chunks" correctly. Remember that prep. phrases begin with a preposition, and end with a noun or pronoun called the "object of the preposition." Any modifiers of that object come before it.

Notice when reading these excerpts from Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" how prepositional phrases (put in parentheses) have a clumping up quality. Other phrases patterns can "clump up" too, but prepositional phrases are great examples of this. Play the audio file to hear this:

And later:
"She had a very thin face (like the dial) (of a small clock) seen faintly (in a dark room) (in the middle) (of the night) when you waken to see the time..." (p. 10)

Bradbury writes about the Mechanical Hound:
"It was (like a great bee) come home (from some field) where the honey is full (of poison wildness), (of insanity and nightmare), its body crammed (with that overrich nectar), and now it was sleeping the evil (out of itself)." (p. 24)

Notice when Clarisse McClellan speaks in this excerpt: "Sometimes I even go (to the Fun Parks) and ride (in the jet cars) when they race (on the edge) (of town) (at midnight)..." (p. 30)

"A book lit, almost obediently, (like a white pigeon), (in his hands), wings fluttering... (In all the rush and fervor), Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it blazed (in his mind) (for the next minute) as if stamped there (with fiery steel)... Montag's hand closed (like a mouth), crushed the book (with wild devotion), (with an insanity) (of mindlessness) (to his chest)." (p. 37)

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