PARTS OF SPEECH: PREPOSITIONS
Classifying Prepositional Phrases as Adjectives and Adverbs – More Practice
A prepositional phrase acts as an adjective when it modifies (describes) a noun or a pronoun. A prepositional
phrase used as an adjective usually answers these questions: Which one? What kind (of)? How many?
or Whose?
Example: The boy at the bus stop seemed nervous.
The prepositional phrase in the street tells which boy.
A prepositional phrase acts as an adverb when it modifies (describes) a verb. A phrase used as
an adverb usually answers these questions: How? Why? Where? or When?
Example: Megan eats lunch every day in the cafeteria.
The prepositional phrase in the cafeteria tells where Megan ate lunch.
Directions: Underline each prepositional phrase, and classify it as an adjective or adverb. The first one is
done for you.
Adv. Adj. Adv.
1. During spring break, friends from my hometown and I went to Sunset Beach.
2. Tacoma Community College is hosting a writers' conference in November.
3. Lindsay lives in a remodeled house originally built in 1898.
4. Stan bought a black jacket with white stripes on the sleeves.
5. Return all DVDs to the video store by 9:00 p.m.
6. Koala bears are found only in certain parts of Australia.
7. I mailed the rest of my invitations for Cory's birthday party at the post office.
8. The teacher gave directions for the exam and then sat down at the back of the room.
9. The length of a football field is a hundred and twenty yards.
10. Olympia, the capital of Washington State, is located on Puget Sound.
11. The parking places for company executives are near the entrance of the building.
12. Our grandparents always go to the Rocky Mountains for their vacation.
13. Millions of people around the world watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969.
14. Maria's expensive mountain bike needed new parts after an accident on a rugged trail.
15. The large waves of the incoming tide are washing away my sandcastle.
16. A mother bear with two cubs has moved into the state park campgrounds near Dow Mountain.
17. Part of the San Juan Fault runs close to Vancouver Island.
18. The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle.
Revised 6/30/09
