LESSON 15 - Asking Directions [Imperative Sentence, Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases]

IMPERATIVE SENTENCE

The imperative tense in English is used to give an order, a warning, an appeal, an advice, a suggestion, an instruction and in some cases a request to another person, to a group of people or to animals. It is very easy to form the imperative sentence: Simply take the verbs' infinitive form (without the "to" infinitive indicator). Usually the verb will be placed at the beginning of the sentence.

For example:

Close the door.

Give me the keys.

The above form is used if a person gives an order to another person or to a group of people. But if the imperative includes oneself in the group of people who receive the order the words "Let us" or "Let's" are added before the infinitive in the sentence.

For example:

Let's eat something, we are all hungry.

Let us be happy, we are all fine.

In order to create a negative form of an imperative, place "do not", "don't" or "let's not" in front of the infinitive form of the verb (again without "to").

For example:

Don't go, I need you here.

Let's not be sad, we are all fine.

The imperative form can also be used to make a request, if you add "please" to the imperative sentence. You can also add "Would you" instead or in addition to "please" (which can be a question or a polite order).

For example:

Please come, I need you there.

Please don't go, I need you here.

More examples:

Stand up when I speak to you (order)

Press the button in order to activate the machine (instruction)

Do not touch it, it is hot! (warning)

Take a left at the corner (advice, suggestion)

Exercise 1

Directions: Make an imperative sentence for each of the following situations.

1. You are a teacher. Give some instructions to start a class.

_________________________________________________________________________________

2. You are a father or a mother. Your son is going to practice karate for the first time. You are worried.

You say...

_________________________________________________________________________________

3. You are a doctor. You have a patient with cough and fever. Give him some basic recommendations.

_________________________________________________________________________________

4. You have a little brother. He’s eating dirt from the flowerpot. What do you say?

_________________________________________________________________________________

5. You had an accident. You are in bed and can’t move. You need some help...

_________________________________________________________________________________

6. You have a sister. She's going on vacation to the beach. Give some advice to her...

_________________________________________________________________________________

7. It is cold and windy outside. You are going to go out. Your mother says...

_________________________________________________________________________________

8. Your friends are going to go shopping. You want something. You say...

_________________________________________________________________________________

9. You have a little sister. You are going out to school, but she is taking too long to get ready. It’s 6:35!

You say...

_________________________________________________________________________________

10.Your cousin is at home using your computer, but you need it now to do some homework. You say...

_________________________________________________________________________________

PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions are words which begin prepositional phrases.

A prepositional phrase is a group of words containing a preposition, a noun or pronoun object of the preposition, and any modifiers of the object.

A preposition sits in front of (is “pre-positioned” before) its object.

The following words are the most commonly used prepositions:

about	below	excepting	off	toward
above	beneath	for	on	under
across	beside(s)	from	onto	underneath
after	between	in	out	until
against	beyond	in front of	outside	up
along	but	inside	over	upon
among	by	in spite of	past	up to
around	concerning	instead of	regarding	with
at	despite	into	since	within
because of	down	like	through	without
before	during	near	throughout	with regard to
behind	except	of	to	with respect to

                                     

         

It is useful to locate prepositional phrases in sentences since any noun or pronoun within the prepositional phrase must be the preposition’s object and, therefore, cannot be misidentified as a verb’s direct object.

To the store is a prepositional phrase.

Store is the object of the preposition to, not the direct object of the verb drove.

           

Car is the direct object of the verb drove.

To the grocery store is a prepositional phrase.

           

NOTE:

A word that looks like a preposition but is actually part of a verb is called a particle.

Held up is a verb meaning “to rob.”

Therefore, up is not a preposition, and bank is not the object of a preposition.

Instead, bank is the direct object of the verb held up.

To avoid confusing prepositions with particles, test by moving the word (up) and words following it to the front of the sentence:

                Up the bank four armed men held.

If the resulting sentence does not make sense, then the word belongs with the verb and is a particle, not a preposition.

Note the difference:

The resulting sentence makes sense.  Therefore, up is a preposition.

The resulting sentence does not make sense.  Therefore, up is a particle in this sentence. 

    

The following examples illustrate the difference between prepositions and particles:

     

Some other examples of particles:

give in	turn in	pull through	wore out	broke up
go in for	put in for	bring up	found out	blow up
look up	make up	look over

Exercise 2

Directions: For each question, choose the single best answer.

1. My best friend lives ______ Boretz Road.

          a. in

          b. on

          c. at

2. I'll be ready to leave ____ about twenty minutes.

          a. in

          b. on

          c. at

3. Since he met his new girlfriend, Juan never seems to be ______ home.

          a. on

          b. in

          c. at

4. The child responded to his mother's demands ______ throwing a tantrum.

          a. with

          b. by

          c. from

5. I think she spent the entire afternoon ______ the phone.

          a. on

          b. in

          c. at

6. I will wait ______ 6:30, but then I'm going home.

          a. from

          b. at

          c. until

7. The police caught the thief _____ the corner of Cascade and Plum Streets.

          a. in

          b. at

          c. from

8. My fingers were injured so my sister had to write the note _____ me.

          a. for

          b. with

          c. to

9. I am not interested _____ buying a new car now.

          a. to

          b. for

          c. in

10. What are the main ingredients ______ this casserole?

          a. about

          b. to

          c. of

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

Recognize a prepositional phrase when you see one.

At the minimum, a prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause, the "object" of the preposition.
The object of the preposition will often have one or more modifiers to describe it. These are the patterns for a prepositional phrase:

preposition + noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause

preposition + modifier(s) + noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause

Here are some examples of the most basic prepositional phrase:

At home

At = preposition; home = noun.

In time

In = preposition; time = noun.

From Richie

From = preposition; Richie = noun.

With me

With = preposition; me = pronoun.

By singing

By = preposition; singing = gerund.

About what we need

About = preposition; what we need = noun clause.

Most prepositional phrases are longer, like these:

From my grandmother

From = preposition; my = modifier; grandmother = noun.

Under the warm blanket

Under = preposition; the, warm = modifiers; blanket = noun.

In the weedy, overgrown garden

In = preposition; the, weedy, overgrown = modifiers; garden = noun.

Along the busy, six-lane highway

Along = preposition; the, busy, six-lane = modifiers; highway = noun.

Without excessively worrying

Without = preposition; excessively = modifier; worrying = gerund.

Understand what prepositional phrases do in a sentence.

A prepositional phrase will function as an adjective or adverb. As an adjective, the prepositional phrase will answer the question Which one?
Read these examples:

The book on the bathroom floor is swollen from shower steam.

Which book? The one on the bathroom floor!

The sweet potatoes in the vegetable bin are green with mold.

Which sweet potatoes? The ones forgotten in the vegetable bin!

The note from Beverly confessed that she had eaten the leftover pizza.

Which note? The one from Beverly!

As an adverb, a prepositional phrase will answer questions such as How? When? or Where?

Freddy is stiff from yesterday's long football practice.

How did Freddy get stiff? From yesterday's long football practice!

Before class, Josh begged his friends for a pencil.

When did Josh do his begging? Before class!

Feeling brave, we tried the Dragon Breath Burritos at Tito's Taco Palace.

Where did we eat the spicy food? At Tito's Taco Palace!

Remember that a prepositional phrase will never contain the subject of a sentence.

Sometimes a noun within the prepositional phrase seems the logical subject of a verb. Don't fall for that trick! You will never find a subject in a prepositional phrase. Look at this example:

Neither of these cookbooks contains the recipe for Manhattan-style squid eyeball stew.

Cookbooks do indeed contain recipes. In this sentence, however, cookbooks is part of the prepositional phrase of these cookbooks. Neither—whatever a neither is—is the subject for the verb contains.
Neither is singular, so you need the singular form of the verb, contains. If you incorrectly identified cookbooks as the subject, you might write contain, the plural form, and thus commit a subject-verb agreement error.
Some prepositions—such as along with and in addition to—indicate "more to come." They will make you think that you have a plural subject when in fact you don't. Don't fall for that trick either! Read this example:

Tommy, along with the other students, breathed a sigh of relief when Mrs. Markham announced that she was postponing the due date for the research essay.

Logically, more than one student is happy with the news. But Tommy is the only subject of the verb breathed. His classmates count in the real world, but in the sentence, they don't matter, locked as they are in the prepositional phrase.

Exercise 3

Directions: Indicate the prepositional phrases in these sentences.

1.  After school, the boys played a game of baseball at the park.

2.  We hid our canoe in the bushes and set up camp by the river.

3.  Candy signed her name on the line and passed the paper across the table.

4.  Without any warning, the dog dashed to the door and barked loudly.

5. The storm caused the tree in our front yard to fall against the house.

Directions: Try to determine whether the boldfaced word is a preposition or an adverb.

6.  Pull up a chair and sit down by Steven.

7.  Throughout the day, Carla hummed a favorite song to herself.

8.  Please bring the newspaper inside.

9.  After brushing her teeth, Margaret likes to read in bed before going to sleep.

10. Run to the store across the street and pick up a gallon of milk, please.

11. Haley rode her bike across the bridge into Red Bank and hung out with her friends.

12.  Linda stood up and clapped loudly.

13.  Lisa borrowed a sweatshirt from her friend.

14. Be careful walking across the wet floor.

15.  I saw an interesting show about Mt. Everest on television yesterday.

Reference

 English, Communication Arts I (Conversational Approach) pp. 147-151
 http://www.vocabulix.com/grammar/imperative-sentence-english.shtml
 http://www.towson.edu/ows/prepositions.htm
 http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/preposition_quiz1.htm
 http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/prepositionalphrase.htm
 http://www.education.com/study-help/article/prepositions-prepositional-phrases_answer/