4

Recently, I came to know that there are 336 prepositions in English via reading an OUP blog:

... . And now the lowly preposition is finally getting the attention it deserves with The Preposition Project (TPP), a monumental undertaking that systematically describes 673 distinct senses for 334 prepositions in English.

I tried my best to find over 330 prepostions in English, but could find a PDF book (written by Josef Essberger) that just provides 150+ prepositions, from which 40% are phrasal prepositions.

Is there any book which can provide over 300 single-worded prepositions? I am from Pakistan, and I hope that those books would be available on major cities like Karachi and Islamabad. If it's not feasible, what PDF documents are there to fit this need? Can you yourself provide over 300 prepositions?

4
  • 1
    I don't understand why anyone would downvote this request, maybe you're asking someone to actually list all 300 prepositions (first time I ever heard that number) is unrealistic. I'm almost tempted to think this question should be migrated on the main page.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Oct 8, 2018 at 5:18
  • 4
    Good ole Wiktionary, despite its many detractors you often find stuff that you can't find anywhere else: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_prepositions It lists around 170 prepositions of which you can safely ignore 70 :)
    – Mari-Lou A
    Oct 8, 2018 at 5:21
  • 2
    "This total of 150 prepositions is comprehensive at the time of writing, and represents all the prepositions currently found in a good English dictionary." [English Club] Memorising or studying 300+ prepositions, when you find that list, is a waste of time IMO. And by the way, the reference you cite does not say that all 300 prepositions are single words.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Oct 8, 2018 at 5:30
  • 2
    @Mari-LouA, Entirely satified with your comments... In addition to all of this, there are some prepositions, which are used in particular regions. For instance, fornent (=meaning face to face) is a preposition, which is solely used in Scottish and North Irish English. So I am sure its substitute might be the preposition vis-à-vis, which can be used across the world without any restriction.
    – Ahmed
    Oct 8, 2018 at 8:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Although I haven't tried it myself, it looks like you can download the list of prepositions that your link is talking about here by filling out your name, email, etc. I'm not convinced that the list only contains prepositions because I searched their page here for * and got a lot of phrases such as "by the name of".

If that doesn't work, then you could try:

  • Searching Dante.

  • The Moby Project's list. Following the method I outlined in a previous answer of mine, that ends up being these 162 words/phrases:

    a la,abaft,aboard,aboon,about,above,across,adown,aff,afore,after,against,alongside,along,amidst,amid,amongst,among,anear,anenst,anent,around,aslant,astraddle,astride,as,athwart,atop,atween,at,a,barring,bar,bating,before,behind,below,beneath,ben,besides,beside,between,betwixt,beyond,but,by,chez,circa,concerning,considering,contra,cum,d',despite,des,de,di,down,during,ere,excepting,except,ex,failing,fer,forby,fore,fornenst,fornent,forth,for,frae,from,inby,inside,into,in,lacking,less,like,malgré,maugre,midst,mid,minus,natheless,near-hand,near,neath,next,nigh,notwithstanding,o' ,o'er,o',off,of,onto,on,opposite,opuscule,outshout,outside,outwith,out,over,pace,past,pending,per,plus,pro,qua,reference,regarding,respecting,re,roundabout,round,sans,save,saving,secundum,senza,since,sine,sith,sur,syne,tae,than,thro',throughout,through,thro,thru,thwart,till,touching,towards,toward,to,underneath,under,unless,unlike,until,unto,up-and-down,upon,up,versus,via,vice,visard,wantage,wanting,while,withal,within,without,with

  • The OED's advanced search, assuming you have a subscription or are willing to pay for one.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .