Adverbs vs Prepositions
Adverbs and Prepositions are two words used in English grammar that show a difference between them when it comes to their applications. In fact, both of them are considered parts of speech in English grammar.Adverbs are connected with verbs while prepositions are connected with nouns. Adverbs are defined as words that qualify verbs. Prepositions, on the other hand, are used in front of nouns or pronouns to show this noun’s or pronoun’s relationship with other words in the sentence. In this way, it appears that finding the difference between adverbs and prepositions cannot be that difficult.
What is an Adverb?
Adverbs describe the verbs, and in short it can be said that they qualify the verbs as in the sentences:
The tiger ran fast.
He spoke sweetly.
In both the sentences given above, you can find that the adverbs ‘fast’ and ‘sweetly’ are used as adverbs. In the first sentence, the adverb ‘fast’ describes the verb ‘run’ and in the second sentence the adverb ‘sweetly’ describes the verb ‘spoke’ or it qualifies the verb ‘spoke’.It is interesting to note that adverbs generally end with the letter ‘ly’ such as quickly, neatly, nicely and the like as most adverbs are formed by adding ‘ly’ to the end of the adjective. There are other ways of forming an adverb as well. You will also not that an adverb does not require an object.
What is a Preposition?
On the other hand, prepositions are used in connection with the nouns in various case forms. In other words, it can be said that prepositions are formative elements that are used with nouns in order to express certain ideas connected with the nouns.
Some of the important prepositions are ‘to’, ‘by’, ‘with’, ‘for’, ‘from’, ‘than’, ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’, ‘among’, ‘between’ and the like. As a matter of fact the preposition to is used in dative case.By and with are used in instrumental case.Fromand than are used in ablative case.In, on, among, and between are used in locative case. Look at the following examples.
The speech was given by her.
That bag belongs to my mother.
She went to the party with her friend.
A preposition needs an object. This can be very well seen from the examples given above. It is quite natural that many other words in the English language are generally used with prepositions to give different meanings. In fact, it can be said that prepositions are used in the formation of idiomatic expressions and in phrases as well. This is an important application of a preposition.
What is the difference between Adverbs and Prepositions?
• Adverbs describe the verbs, and in short it can be said that they qualify the verbs.
• On the other hand, prepositions are used in connection with the nouns in various case forms.
• Prepositions express certain ideas connected with the nouns.
• Most adverbs are made by adding ‘ly’ to the end of the adjective.There are several ways of forming adverbs.
• A preposition always requires an object but an adverb does not require an object.
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