Join Date: May 2000

Location: SW Side, Chicago

Posts: 27,795
Well, a conjunction, as the name implies, is used to join two parts of a sentence.
They are words like but, and, or, that, etc.

e.g. He said that he likes Jill.

e.g. He likes Jill because she's sweet.

A preposition is word placed before a noun or noun phrase and somehow indicates
the noun or noun phrase's relationship to another verb, adjective or noun (phrase.)
These are words like over, by, in, to, with, etc.

e.g. Jill climbed over the wall.

e.g. Jill stood near the bus stop.

As you can see, prepositions establish a relationship between two parts of a sentence
in a way that conjunctions don't. Conjunctions act more like glue, if you will, and
don't add a lot of meaning. Prepositions usually establish some sort of positional
relationship between elements in a sentence.

Join Date: Apr 2001

I seem to remember when I was a kid learing about such things and the teacher
presented each of us with drawing of a person standing next to a tree. She told us to
think about how the person could get to the other side of the tree or how the person
relates to the tree. (The person could go over, under, through, near, by, on, etc)
That's how I identify a preposition.
And as for a conjunction, sadly I remember the "Conjunction Junction, what's your
function? Hookin' up words and phrases and clauses." from Schoolhouse Rock

As has been noted, conjunctions join things. These could be sentences (called clauses when
they are combined into a bigger sentence), or just items.

The coordinate conjunctions join things, but show little or no relationship between clauses:

The boy kicked the ball. He scored a goal.

becomes

The boy kicked the ball and he scored a goal.

There are six coordinate conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet), though some add so, for a
total of seven.

Subordinate conjunctions join clauses, and show a relationship between them:

I was waiting for the bus. I saw Bob.

can become

While I was waiting for the bus, I saw Bob.

or

I saw Bob while I was waiting for the bus.

Another example:

The bus was late. I was late for school.

can become

Since the bus was late, I was late for school.

or

I was late for school because the bus was late.

Prepositions give direction to actions. They are not adverbs, though they do add information
to what is happening in the sentence:

I sat on the chair.

Bob saw me at school.
The car is driving over the bridge.
Susan goes to work in the city.
John rode on the train to Chicago in December.

The difference between conjunctions and prepositions is just that conjunctions join things,
while (hey! I used a subordinate conjunction there) prepositions give direction to actions.
Here's an overly simple test, but (coordinate conjunction) it works in (preposition) most
instances:

If you take the word you are wondering about out and end up with two sentences, you have
a conjunction. If you take that word out and end up with an incomplete sentence
somewhere, you have a preposition:

Remember:
The boy kicked the ball and he scored a goal.
The boy kicked the ball. He scored a goal.

Take away and, and we have two sentences. And must be a conjunction.

But:

Bob saw me at school.

Bob saw me. School.

Take away at, and we have one sentence and only part of another. At must be a preposition.

The test won't work in all instances. But it works in many, and demonstrates the difference
between the two parts of speech.

Whoops, forgot something.

Conjunctions can join things to make plurals, and prepositions can still be used. The test
won't work so clearly at those times:

I saw Steve and Mary at the movies.

becomes

I saw Steve. Mary at the movies.

(Removing the conjunction doesn't leave us with two sentences, so you might mistake it for
a preposition.)

I saw Steve and Mary. The movies.

(It works here, so the removed word must be a preposition.)

Like I said above, the test won't always work. Be aware of situations like the example in this
post however, and you should be okay.

a conjunction is a fanboys (for,and,nor,but, or, yet, so) and connects two independant
clauses. a preposition is telling the position of something. (with, over, under, around,
between, ect)