Saving Our Prepositions - A Guide For The Perplexed

What are prepositions?  Easy.  Prepositions are those diminutive and deceptively simple words, like “at,” “by” “for,” “in,” “of,” “on” and ”to,” which are entrusted with the humble task of connecting one part of sentence to another.  They are the vital building blocks of the English language, and few sentences would be complete or even possible without them.  Yet they are also the banana peels of modern speech and we constantly slip up on them.  The unfortunate result is a rash of awkwardness, confusion and misunderstanding.