5 Ways to Reduce Use of Prepositions

5 Ways to Reduce Use of Prepositions 5 Ways to Reduce Use of Prepositions 5 Ways to Reduce Use of Prepositions By Mark Nichol Prepositions, words that indicate relations between nouns, pronouns, and verbs (mostly small ones like for, in, of, on, to, and with but sometimes more substantial, as in the case of beneath or between), are often integral to a sentence, but writers can clutter sentences by being overly dependent on them. Here are five strategies for minimizing the number of prepositions you use: 1. Eliminate Prepositions by Using Active Voice Shifting from passive voice to active voice, as in the revision of â€Å"The watch was obviously designed by a master craftsman† to â€Å"A master craftsman had obviously designed the watch† takes a preposition out of action. (But take care that the inversion of the sentence structure doesn’t incorrectly shift emphasis or diminish dramatic effect.) 2. Substitute an Adverb for a Prepositional Phrase In the writer’s toolbox, adverbs are stronger tools than prepositional phrases. Revision of the sentence â€Å"The politician responded to the allegations with vehemence† to â€Å"The politician responded vehemently to the allegations† strengthens the thought and deletes the weak preposition with. 3. Use a Genitive in Place of a Prepositional Phrase An easy test to help reduce the number of prepositions is to search for the genitive case, or a possessive form: If a sentence could use the genitive case but doesn’t, revise the sentence. For example, â€Å"She was disturbed by the violent images in the movie† gains more impact (and loses a preposition) by reversing the sentence’s subject and object: â€Å"She was disturbed by the movie’s violent images.† (Combine this strategy with a shift from passive voice to active voice, and you jettison two prepositions and further strengthen the statement: â€Å"The movie’s violent images disturbed her.†) Another use of this technique is to revise a phrase including a reference to a location within a location, as in â€Å"the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,† which can be more actively and efficiently rendered as â€Å"New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.† 4. Omit Prepositions by Eliminating Nominalizations Writers and editors aid clarity and conciseness by uncovering nominalizations, otherwise known as buried, or smothered, verbs. In doing so, they also negate the need for a preposition. For example, the sentence â€Å"Their attempt to provide a justification of the expense was unsuccessful,† simplified to â€Å"Their attempt to justify the expense was unsuccessful,† not only transforms the verb+article+nominalization clump â€Å"provide a justification† into the streamlined verb justify but also makes of unnecessary. (I originally wrote â€Å"but also makes the use of of unnecessary,† but then deleted the superfluous phrase â€Å"the use of† and thereby deleted a preposition.) 5. Delete Prepositional Phrases Prepositional phrases (preposition+article+noun) provide context, but they’re not always necessary. In a sentence like â€Å"The best outcome for this scenario would be an incremental withdrawal,† note whether the meaning is clear without the phrase, and if so, strike it out: â€Å"The best outcome would be an incremental withdrawal.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:75 Synonyms for â€Å"Angry†Dawned vs. DonnedEach vs. Both

Definitions and Examples of Partitives in Grammar

Definitions and Examples of Partitives in Grammar   In English grammar, a partitive is a word or phrase (such as some of or a slice  of) that indicates a part or quantity of something as distinct from a whole.Partitive is also called partitive noun or partitive noun phrase and is from the Latin partitus, relating to a part. Partitives can appear before mass (or noncount) nouns as well as count nouns. Although most partitive constructions refer to a quantity or amount, some are used to indicate quality or behavior (the kind of teacher  who ... ).  Ã‚   Examples and Observations You must have been warned against  letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip. (J.M. Barrie, Courage. Rectorial Address delivered at St. Andrews University, May 3, 1922)Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it  easier to do, dont need to be done. (Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes)Now Murrells eyes followed an ant on a blade of grass, up the blade and down, many times in the single moment. (Eudora Welty, A Still Moment. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. Harcourt, 1980)Soap gumdrops, soap cigars, soap pickles, soap chocolates, and even a bar of soap that dyed its user an indelible blue made life exciting for the friends of a Johnson Smith addict. (Jean Shepherd, A Fistful of Fig Newtons. Random House, 1981)Not a part of the rock or a speck of moss or a streak of some other mineral, it was one of those stubborn bits of green felted cardboard that these rocks were always fixed on inside of the boxes. (Sharon Fiffer, Buried Stuff. Minotaur Books, 2010) It doesn’t matter if you’re a high school kid on your bike, or if you’re an egghead like me with a  boatload  of degrees. Anybody can be a birder. (Ben Kingsley as Lawrence Konrad in A Birders Guide to Everything, 2014)I am not just some here-today-gone-tomorrow  sort of person who blows hot and cold  like a feather in the windblown about by air. Oh no. Believe me, my love for you is, was and always will be true and oh-so-real. (Dawn French, Dear David Cassidy in  Dear Fatty.  Arrow Books, 2009) Partitives With Count Nouns and Noncount Nouns Count nouns that can act as the first element in such a structure (e.g. piece, bit, sort, etc.) are partitive nouns or partitives. Some words that form the second part of the construction take specific partitives (also called unit nouns) a Partitives are useful because they provide a means of counting uncount nouns.(Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner, Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1994) Partitives With Nouns of Location and Time Partitives are  found with nouns of location (the end of the street, the back of the house etc.) and time (the end of the day, the middle of the week, the beginning of the month). These partitives of location and time are almost always found with the frame the partitive of the noun. (Dave Willis,  Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and Lexis in English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press,  2003)  One day toward the end of the  month the wind veered around  to the southwest again and clouds moved in, bringing with them a heavy downpour. (John Hanson Mitchell,  Living at the End of Time: Two Years in a Tiny House.  University Press of New England, 2014)   Partitives With Foods and Liquids Some partitives, such as gallon/liter of, can be applied to any head noun that is a liquid, and partitives such as ton/gram/pound of can be used to quantify anything that is appropriately measured by weight. Similarly, partitives such as a bottle of can be applied to different types of liquids that come in this container (e.g., beer, wine, catsup, milk). In contrast, partitives used to quantify food are more restricted. Portions of baked goods such as cake, pie, pizza, and bread are measured by slices, and only bread is quantified by the partitive count noun loaf. Certain types of vegetables (e.g., cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce) are quantified by head.  (Ron Cowan, The Teachers Grammar of English: A Course Book and Reference Guide. Cambridge University Press, 2008)  The pub is very smart  and popular with foreigners, who can order Leopold Blooms lunch- a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy- for about fifteen dollars during the summer high season. (Bill Barich,  A Pint of Plain: Tradition, Change and the Fate of the Irish Pub.  Bloomsbury, 2010) Functions of Partitives Partitive expressions collocate strongly with particular non-count nouns: a​ ... Partitive expressions commonly refer to the shape, size, movement or the amount of something: Theres a whole ... Some partitive expressions with -ful refer to containers or spaces which commonly hold the item referred to. These include bowlful of, cupful of, fistful of, handful of, mouthful of, spoonful of: He gave me a The plural of such expressions is usually formed by adding -s after -ful.(Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press, 2006)