--- title: Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sentences together — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sentences together», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Prepositions are small words that show where, when or how things connect: on, under, in, behind, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Prepositions and conjunctions: little… # Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sentences together Lesson 6 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/0/) — Prepositions are small words that show where, when or how things connect: on, under, in, behind, before, after, with; a pencil "on the desk" and a pencil "under the desk" are in very different places. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/1/) — Conjunctions are joining words: and adds, but shows a contrast, or gives a choice, so shows a result and because gives a reason. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/2/) — "I went home because I was tired" is one sentence; "Because I was tired." on its own leaves you waiting, because a because-part needs a main part to lean on. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/3/) — Prepositions are the least logical words in any language, so countries differ: the British say "at the weekend", Americans and Australians "on the weekend"; northern English says "I'm sat" for I'm sitting, and an Aussie meets you "at the servo this arvo". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/4/) — Some old "rules" are myths: ending a sentence with a preposition ("What are you looking at?") is natural English, and starting with And or But can be fine for effect. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/5/) — A preposition shows place, time or connection, like on, in, at, under, behind, before, after and with; it comes before a noun or pronoun, as in "under the desk". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/6/) — A conjunction joins words or parts of sentences: and adds, but contrasts, or gives a choice, so shows a result, because gives a reason. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/7/) — A main clause makes sense on its own; a subordinate clause, like "because I was tired", needs a main clause to make full sense. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/8/) — British English usually says "at the weekend"; American and Australian English usually say "on the weekend". - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/9/) — In Britain, especially the North, "I'm sat" and "I'm stood" mean I am sitting and I am standing; formal writing uses sitting and standing. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/11/) — In Australia "servo" means a petrol (service) station and "arvo" means afternoon; arvo is used in New Zealand too. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/12/) — The "rule" against ending a sentence with a preposition was copied from Latin by some writers in the 1600s and 1700s; English naturally says "What are you looking at?". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/13/) — A famous joke mocking that rule, "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put", is often credited to Winston Churchill, but nobody has proved he said it. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/14/) — Starting a sentence with And or But is not banned; good writers sometimes do it for effect. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/15/) — "Eat your peas or you won't get pudding" and "Eat your peas and you'll get pudding" make the same deal, but "or" sounds stricter and "and" sounds kinder. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/16/) — Bored of, bored with and bored by all mean the same; older writers often prefer with or by, and younger speakers mostly say of. - ← previous: [Pronouns: I, me, you, they and who](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/5-pronouns-i-me-you-they-and-who/) - next →: [Kinds of sentences: statements, questions, commands, exclamations](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/7-kinds-of-sentences/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)