Beth Revis: Your Simple Rules to Grammar, part 3

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Your Simple Rules to Grammar, part 3

Posted by Beth Revis at 4:33 AM

Part One: Definitions
Part Two: IC/DC Rules

Welcome to my third post in the series: What to do with prepositional phrases!

My other posts were a bit long. You'll be relieved to see this one is shorter.

Prepositional phrases are treated the same way as dependent clauses: you follow dependent clauses with punctuation.

I call it the PP Rules: The Prepositional Phrase rules (although my kids do like saying PP).

THE PP RULES

IC PP.
PP, IC.

It's the same as with dependent clauses: if it's at the end of the sentence, no comma; if it's at the beginning of the sentence, comma.

Example:

I cried after reading the book.
After reading the book, I cried.

The only difference in the above two sentences are where the phrase is. If it's at the end, it gets the period. If it's at the beginning, it needs a comma after it.

Questions? Ask me, because I'm a grammar fan-girl.