Prepositional phrases and modifiers

[grace.ggui]

Hi,

I'm a bit confused about prepositional phrases. They are not modifiers, right? Can prep phrases describe nouns, verbs, and adjectives?

If I remember correctly, modifiers for nouns must touch the thing it is modifying. Does a prep phrase need to do the same or no? What are the rules for prep phrases that describe parts of a sentence different from modifiers?

Thank you!
Grace

[RonPurewal]

Hi,

I'm a bit confused about prepositional phrases. They are not modifiers, right? Can prep phrases describe nouns, verbs, and adjectives?

They are modifiers.

They can describe any of the things you've mentioned.

[RonPurewal]

If I remember correctly, modifiers for nouns must touch the thing it is modifying. Does a prep phrase need to do the same or no? What are the rules for prep phrases that describe parts of a sentence different from modifiers?

Like other modifiers, these should be placed as close as possible to the thing they're trying to modify.

If it's possible to place the modifier directly adjacent to the thing it's describing, then, of course, that's ideal placement.

However, that's not always possible.
E.g.,
My son reads books at school.
"At school" describes the action of reading, but it's clearly not possible to place "at school" right next to "reads".