What Makes Something a Particle Instead of a Preposition?

In our last episode, we talked about the difference between prepositions and particles in order to discuss the famous grammar punch line, “This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put!” Today we’re going to get into two other interesting properties of particles. 

Particles need to be stressed

One phenomenon will be of interest to people who are learning English as a non-native language. Listen to these two sentences. In the first one, “on” is a particle, and in the second, “on” is a preposition:

• Aardvark slept on.
• Aardvark slept on the couch.

Did you notice that in “Aardvark slept on,” the particle “on” was stressed? And in the sentence “Aardvark slept on the couch,” the preposition “on” wasn’t stressed. Now if we wanted to, we could stress the preposition, if we were saying something like, “Aardvark slept on the couch, not under it.” But usually, we don’t. On the other hand, if we don’t stress the “on” in “Aardvark slept on,” the sentence crashes. Here’s what it sounds like:

• Aardvark slept on. 

When I read that sentence to myself, I find myself asking, “Slept on what? Finish the sentence!” Or I imagine that these words are part of a longer sentence that I didn’t catch because the speaker was on mute at first. The whole sentence might be, “This is the couch that Aardvark slept on.” That sentence is OK, even though “on” isn’t stressed, because it’s a preposition. 

If you’re learning English, and haven’t learned the distinction between prepositions and particles, it might seem totally random that “Aardvark slept on” causes English-speaking listeners to scratch their heads, while “Aardvark slept on the couch” is fine.

It can be even more frustrating if you’ve learned that in English, prepositions aren’t stressed, and have spent time and energy practicing not stressing them, only to have people misunderstand you when you say, “Come in! Sit down!” instead of “Come in! Sit down!”

'They ran me over'

The other phenomenon shows how the grammar of a language can change without you even noticing it. In our last episode, we talked about how there are some cases where it...

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