What parts of speech are prepositions?

Prepositions are not parts of speech themselves. They are function words, which means they don't have a lexical meaning (a dictionary definition) like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs do.

Instead, prepositions show the relationship between other words in a sentence. They usually describe location, time, or direction.

Here's a breakdown:

* Parts of speech are the basic categories of words based on their grammatical function.

* Function words are words that serve a grammatical purpose rather than carrying a lexical meaning.

Examples of prepositions:

* Location: on, in, under, over, near, beside, behind, between, among

* Time: at, before, after, during, since, until, within

* Direction: to, from, towards, into, out of, through, across

Prepositions often introduce prepositional phrases, which consist of the preposition and its object (usually a noun or pronoun).

Example:

* The cat is sleeping on the couch. (Here, "on" is the preposition, and "the couch" is the object of the preposition, forming the prepositional phrase "on the couch.")