ESL Basic English Grammar Questions and Help

Re: Preposition as a noun?

Grammar Geek — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:45:54 GMT

I suspect it was supposed to be "set them off" - as the queen of typos myself I just didn't even see that it said "see."

Working on a variation of your sentence (yours would give us "to hit it with a hammer" as the subject when reversed, and an infinitive is already acceptable as a subject):

One of the best ways to do that is with a hammer = With a hammer is one of the best ways to do that. It doesn't reverse nearly as well as Tom lives in that house.

I have never thought about whether a prepositional phrase can function as the main subject of sentence but it appears that it can, just as an infinitive can. Am I losing my mind here?

Re: Preposition as a noun?

Clive — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:30:13 GMT

Hi,

I was told that something like the one below is an inverted structure, << It seems reasonable to call it that.then what the second one that is underlined?

Among the students signed up for the contest are John and Sam. -- Inverted of "John and Sam are among the students signed up." And this supposed to show the prepositional phrase is not a noun (acting as a subject)? It's just a statement. It isn't supposed to 'show' anything. A simpler form is, for example, In that house lives Tom.

Then what is this? Is this a noun?

One of the best ways is to see them off is with commas. Consider a simpler example. I want to break a window. One of the best ways is to hit it with a hammer. 'With a hammer' is not a noun. It's a prepositional phrase.

In your example about the commas, your grammar is not correct (you've said 'is' twice) and I've no idea what your sentence means. How do you see someone off with a comma?

Best wishes, Clive

Preposition as a noun?

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:42:59 GMT

Hi,

I was told that something like the one below is an inverted structure, then what the second one that is underlined?

Among the students signed up for the contest are John and Sam. -- Inverted of "John and Sam are among he students signed up." And this supposed to show the prepositional phrase is not a noun (acting as a subject)?

Then what is this? Is this a noun?

One of the best ways is to see them off is with commas.