A prepositional adverb is a word – mainly a
particle – which is very similar in its form to a
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
but functions as an
adverb. Prepositional adverbs occur, for example, in
English,
German and
Dutch. Unlike real prepositions, they occur mainly at the end of a phrase and not before nouns. They also modify the verb, which a preposition does not.
An example of a prepositional adverb in English is "inside" in "He peeked inside".
Phrasal verb
A verb combined with a prepositional adverb is called a
phrasal verb only if the verb's meaning is changed by the prepositional adverb. In English, there are many examples of this. For example, ''let'' can have many possible meanings depending on which prepositional adverb it is combined with (''let down'', ''let in'', ''let off'', ''let to'', etc.)
Prepositional adverbs in other languages
Although prepositional adverbs are largely associated with
Germanic languages, those of other classes occasionally have corresponding features. For instance,
Slavic languages such as
Czech may prefix prepositions to verbs of motion (''jít'' to go → ''dojít'' to come towards, ''odejít'' to go away from). In
Hungarian, the case endings may also be prefixed to verbs (''városba'' to the city, ''bemenni'' to go towards), much as in German.
See also
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Pronominal adverb
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Preposition and postposition
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Prepositional pronoun
A prepositional pronoun is a special form of a personal pronoun that is used as the object of a preposition.
English does not have a distinct grammatical case that relates solely to prepositional pronouns. Certain genitive pronouns (e.g. a frien ...
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Phrasal verb
Parts of speech
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