Do we REALLY have to memorize the prepositions?

[Carla]

We are doing FLL 3 with my youngers and Easy Grammar with the olders. They both have you memorize all the prepositions. I don't have them memorized, but I don't have any trouble identifying a preposition in a sentence. Anyone have any experience or advice as to why these must be memorized? Anyone's children doing just fine without memorizing them? It just seems so... boring :glare: Sorry.

[redsquirrel]

Well, it does help if they can spot them all. Do your kids say it is boring or do you feel like it is boring? If you think it is borning, then do it with them. We would march around chanting them or do it on the trampoline etc.

 

My son, 10 and a 5th grader, takes great pride at being able to spout them off, lol.

 

I do see the value. My son can spot one without having to think about it's function in the sentance and he likes that.

 

but YMMV.

[2cents]

We didn't. We identify most by remembering that in the word preposition you have the word position.

[ChandlerMom]

We are doing FLL 3 with my youngers and Easy Grammar with the olders. They both have you memorize all the prepositions. I don't have them memorized, but I don't have any trouble identifying a preposition in a sentence. Anyone have any experience or advice as to why these must be memorized? Anyone's children doing just fine without memorizing them? It just seems so... boring :glare: Sorry.

 

By ALL do you mean all 150? Or a subset of the more common ones?

 

I'm curious what folks will say. I'd be inclined to just use the lists for games -- spelling lists, and how about a madlib like game where one person makes up a subject and simple predicate (or back and forth), you draw a preposition from a deck, and then have to finish the sentence with it? I would think there are all sorts of ways of exposing them to prepositions (beyond on/of/for) without memorizing them, but I am all :bigear: !!

[Matryoshka]

No. I actually think it's counterproductive. The majority of prepositions can function as other parts of speech (adverbs, coordinating or subordinating conjunctions...) depending on how they're used. If they are not in the PREposition of a phrase ending with an object, they're not prepositions. It's very easy to identify a prepositional phrase by what it's doing in the sentence.

 

When we did Easy Grammar I did copy out the list and give it to my kids for reference, but never had them memorize them.

[mcconnellboys]

I cut them up into about five groups and had mine work on memorizing one group, then adding in another, until he had them all. We only started work in Easy Grammar Plus about week 11 or 12, I think, and we're in week 15 now and he has them all memorized.

 

It's simply a couple of minutes a day added on at the end of his grammar work for the day. He comes and recites them to me and he's done.

 

I think it will just make it simpler to pick out prepositions as he goes forward.

 

It may be boring, but I think it's perfectly doable for 5 minutes or less a day....

[Haiku]

No. I actually think it's counterproductive. The majority of prepositions can function as other parts of speech (adverbs, coordinating or subordinating conjunctions...) depending on how they're used. If they are not in the PREposition of a phrase ending with an object, they're not prepositions. It's very easy to identify a prepositional phrase by what it's doing in the sentence.

 

 

This is why I am not having dd8 memorize them. I don't want her to get into the mindset that those words function ONLY as prepositions. I think that will make it more confusing as she progresses in grammar. We are working on prepositions in FLL3 right now. I have her read the list at the beginning of every lesson, but I am not insisting she memorize it, and I was actually surprised that it is suggested to do so.

 

I never memorized prepositions and I have no trouble picking them out. I did memorize five common prepositions in German (durch, ohne, gegen, für, um), and I am not sure it did anything miraculous for me.

 

Tara

[Mom22ns]

No, we use EG and we didn't memorize them. We did play preposition bingo and spend some time getting familiar with the 50+ list given by EG, but we never actually memorized them. Spotting them is good, memorizing a list - unnecessary.

[EKS]

No.

[regentrude]

I never had to memorize all prepositions (Is that even possible??))

Growing up in a language that has declensions where different prepositions require different declensions, we had to memorize the six that required a special case.

My kids never memorized prepositions - their English grammar is great. i think it's a waste of time.

[NanceXToo]

I never memorized prepositions, and I do not expect my kids to, either!

[justamouse]

make it fun by asking them where the squirrel peed. Of course it won't reveal ALL prepositions, but it makes hunting for them fun! :001_smile:

[delaney]

When I was in school there was a song about them....off to find it:)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I never memorized prepositions and I have no trouble picking them out. I did memorize five common prepositions in German (durch, ohne, gegen, für, um), and I am not sure it did anything miraculous for me.

 

Tara

 

The reason one tends to memorize lists of German prepositions is that they determine the case of the following noun. So one needs to know which are accusative and which are dative. Plus the important list of prepositions that could be either depending on the rest of the sentence.

 

Which could be an argument against memorizing English prepositions or a suggestion that learning a list of the most common isn't that difficult.

[nd293]

No. I actually think it's counterproductive. The majority of prepositions can function as other parts of speech (adverbs, coordinating or subordinating conjunctions...) depending on how they're used.

 

:iagree:Exactly what I was thinking. We're using MCT, and it took both dd and I a few sentences to figure that out. If she'd been taught the list of prepositions it would have been even harder.

[Haiku]

The reason one tends to memorize lists of German prepositions is that they determine the case of the following noun. So one needs to know which are accusative and which are dative.

 

OH! That's right! I had forgotten that. I believe the ones I mentioned are accusative, correct? I don't really think about it anymore, I just speak/write.

 

Tara

[Jean in Wisc]

I'd say you ask your children what a preposition is and then you ask them to list as many as they can. You do this over and over again. You have them try to find new ones they've not considered to be a prep in their reading or in other grammar books or googled...

 

The idea of trying to make a complete list and then memorizing them is useless...the idea of making a list and memorizing them enough so that they actually remember it so many years from now is productive.

 

Jean

[MerryAtHope]

I gave my kids a week & told them we'd go out for ice cream if they did it. That motivated them. It helps SOOO much if they memorize them! (We're doing EG).

 

Merry :-)

[Ali in OR]

We enjoyed the challenge in FLL 2. I think that list was about 42 prepositions. And you know what? It *is* helpful to have that in our brain for a quick reference as we encounter prepositions again in our grammar studies. I am looking forward to doing them again with my youngest in the coming weeks.

 

Can you get by without memorizing them? Sure. We never memorized such things when I was a kid. But having done it both ways, I think the best thing for my kids is to make an attempt at memorizing them, which they think is fun.

[8filltheheart]

No. I actually think it's counterproductive. The majority of prepositions can function as other parts of speech (adverbs, coordinating or subordinating conjunctions...) depending on how they're used. If they are not in the PREposition of a phrase ending with an object, they're not prepositions. It's very easy to identify a prepositional phrase by what it's doing in the sentence.

 

When we did Easy Grammar I did copy out the list and give it to my kids for reference, but never had them memorize them.

 

I remember being so confused about grammar as a child b/c I was taught lists. I could not wrap my head around the idea that words could be multiple parts of speech b/c I was so literal in my memorizing of the lists. It is one of the reasons I constantly reiterate to my kids that context is vital for determining the parts of speech.

 

So.....no.....my kids never memorize lists.

[Carla]

Thanks for all the replies, they have been very helpful. My olders have no trouble picking out the prepositions and prepositional phrases. I don't think I will have them memorize the list.

 

And neither does my nine year old who is doing FLL 3 have any trouble when we do it orally. Without hesitation, he could tell me the prepositions when I read the sentences out to him. But then, he continued on in the worksheet, reading the sentences to himself and became totally lost, even when he was doing sentences we had already done together orally! Why did THAT happen? :confused:

[regentrude]

OH! That's right! I had forgotten that. I believe the ones I mentioned are accusative, correct? I don't really think about it anymore, I just speak/write.

 

Tara

Yes, they are the ones which always require the accusative.

(Certain prepositions of location can be used with the accusative as well as the dativ, depending on whether they refer to where something is moved to or where something is located)

[Haiku]

(Certain prepositions of location can be used with the accusative as well as the dativ, depending on whether they refer to where something is moved to or where something is located)

 

Thanks. It's been longer than I would care to remember or admit since I actually had a German class ... :o And then I went and learned Dutch and that messed everything up! ;)

 

Tara

[Paige]

I memorized the prepositions as a child and hadn't planned on making my children memorize them. My son, however, was having a hard time identifying them correctly in his homework. We use Grammar/Practice Island and I don't think he explains prepositions very well and I couldn't get my son to really pick them out either with my explanations. So, I printed off a few pages of the most common prepositions and had him read them to me every day. I didn't tell him to memorize them or force it at all. We just read the list and it only took 1-2 minutes a day. Pretty soon, he began identifying prepositions very well, and now he can even pick out the prepositions that were not on his original list based on the function of the word in the sentence. We only read the preposition list once a week now and I'll probably stop soon but I think it helped him immensely. The thing about the list, is that he would see (and say) at one time all these prepositions and he could find the pattern and similarity among them and then generalize that out to other words not on the list with similar qualities.

 

I plan on doing the same thing when my other children are older. I don't think memorization is necessary- I don't think my son could repeat the list from memory- but familiarization is very helpful. He also has no problem seeing that the words on the list don't always function as prepositions.

Edited December 9, 2010 by Paige

[Laura Corin]

I think you need to be able to spot prepositions, but you don't need to memorise them to do that.

 

Laura

[deeinfl]

Nope, I make a copy of the list and have my child keep them in his English book for reference. He is allowed to take it out and use it whenever he needs to.

 

My 7th grade teacher did make us memorize them, but that was the first time I had even heard of a preposition. Yup...in the 7th grade...

 

:lol:

[Capt_Uhura]

No. I actually think it's counterproductive. The majority of prepositions can function as other parts of speech (adverbs, coordinating or subordinating conjunctions...) depending on how they're used. If they are not in the PREposition of a phrase ending with an object, they're not prepositions. It's very easy to identify a prepositional phrase by what it's doing in the sentence.

 

When we did Easy Grammar I did copy out the list and give it to my kids for reference, but never had them memorize them.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

 

I emphasize what the word is doing in the sentence. Is it telling the relationship (space, time, or direction) between two words (one being it's object) in a sentence? If yes, it's a preposition. No, is it an adverb modifying an adj, verb, or another adv?