The word preposition comes from Latin: prae- prefix (pre- prefix) ("before") and Latin: ponere ("to put"). This refers to the situation in Latin and Greek (and in English), where such words are placed before their complement (except

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An adposition typically combines with exactly one complement, most often a noun phrase (or, in a different analysis, a determiner phrase).

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As noted above, adpositions are referred to by various terms, depending on their position relative to the complement.
While the term preposition is sometimes used to denote any adposition, in its stricter meaning it refers only to one which precedes its complement.

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Preposition stranding is a syntactic construct in which a preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its complement. For example, in the English sentence "What did you sit on?" the preposition on has what as its complement, but what is

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Simple adpositions consist of a single word (on, in, for, towards, etc.). Complex adpositions consist of a group of words that act as one unit.

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Marginal prepositions are prepositions that have affinities with other word classes, most notably verbs. Marginal prepositions behave like prepositions but derive from other parts of speech. Some marginal prepositions in English include barring, concerning,

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In descriptions of some languages, prepositions are divided into proper (or essential) and improper (or accidental). A preposition is called

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