TOEFL STRUCTURE TIPS AND STRATEGIES: Be Careful of Objects of Prepositions

An object of a preposition is a noun, pronoun, gerund or noun clause that comes after a preposition, such as in, at, of, by, behind, on, and so on, to form a prepositional phrase.

(After his exams) Tom will take a trip (by boat)

This sentence contains two objects of prepositions. Exams is the object of the preposition after, and boat is the object of the preposition by.

An Object of a preposition can cause confusion in structure questions on the TOEFL test because it can be mistaken for the subject of the sentence.

Example :

With his friend __________ found the movie theathre.

(A) has

(B) he

(C) later

(D) when

In this example you should look first for the subject and thne verb. You should notice the verb found  and should also notice that there is no subject. Do not think that friend is the subject; friend is the object of the preposition with, and one noun cannot be both a subject and an object at the same time. Because a subject needed in this sentence, answer (B), he, is the best answer. Answer (A), (C), and (D) are not correct because they cannot be subjects.

So the key is:

"A preposition is followed by a noun, pronoun, gerund or noun clause that is called an object of the preposition. If a word is an object of a preposition, it is not subject.

See also the previous post:
TOEFL STRUCTURE: Be Sure The Sentences Has A Subject and A Verb

Categories: Structure, TOEFL