Like the conjunction And, Prepositions can be used to connect and link words, phrases, and ideas. The thumbnail leads to a blog post titled Stop Saying And, use prepositions instead.

English Sentence Grammar: Use Prepositions Instead of And

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In English, there are eight parts of speech we use to build a sentence including conjunctions and prepositions. While these two parts of speech are similar in that they help the speaker or writer to connect ideas in a sentence, you might be wondering what the difference between a conjunction and preposition is. To answer this question, I will keep the focus on the prepositions that share a similar meaning to the conjunction And such as the prepositions along with, in addition to, and as well as. The conjunction And is different from prepositions like along with because the conjunction and links ideas in a grammatically equal way whereas prepositions like along with link ideas in a grammatically unequal way.

In my video lesson below, you can watch the lesson as I explain how to use subordinating prepositions such as along with, in addition to, and as well as in place of the generic conjunction and. If, however, you prefer to read the lesson instead, please scroll past the video for the written transcript.

What type of conjunction is And?

The conjunction And is a part of speech called a coordinating conjunction. It is the base level of conjunction where two or more items, phrases, or clauses are linked in a way that shows the relationship between the linked items.

The seven coordinating Conjunctions are: and, or, but, for, nor, yet, and so.

What is the use of the conjunction And?

The conjunction And is generally used for addition, meaning you want to show two or more words, phrases, or clauses as sharing a similar meaning, use, or characteristic.

Other coordinating conjunctions might express the relationship between words, phrases, or clauses in different ways such as:

  • Exception -> Or
  • Contrast -> But and Yet
  • Reason or Cause -> For (as in because)
  •  Negation -> Nor (the negative of and/or)
  •  Result or Effect (the inverse of because)

What is the Rule for the Conjunction And?

Since the conjunction And is a coordinating conjunction, it follows the rules of Parallelism, meaning that:

  1. It is used to link words to words, phrases to phrases, and clauses to clauses.
  2. The linked structures are all grammatically equal.
  3. This means that the connected words or phrases should be the same grammatical structure. 
The graphic illustrates the function of correlating or coordinating conjunctions. All of the linked words or phrases fall under the rules of parallelism and are grammatically equal.

Some examples of parallel structures using the conjunction And could include the following:

  • verbs in the same tense: bought and paid for
  • prepositional phrases: in the morning and at night 
  • gerund phrases: eating right, keeping fit, and exercising your mind
  • infinitive phrases: to learn something new and develop your skills
  • and more!
If you are a visual learner, you will find the following slide helpful as it illustrates how parallelism works in full sentences.
The graphic contains an example sentence that shows how parallelism works in a sentence.

What does grammatically unequal mean?

If parallel words and phrases are grammatically equal, what, then, are grammatically unequal elements in a sentence?

In short, grammatically unequal elements within a sentence do not share the same importance where one element is higher in the hierarchy than the other element.

You can relate elements in a sentence as grammatically unequal in two ways.

  1. You can use prepositions such as along with, in addition to, or as well as to link words or phrases as grammatically unequal.
  2. You may link whole clauses as grammatically unequal. If we are keeping with the similar meaning to the conjunction And, then whereas or while may work as alternatives to And.

However, this lesson centers around the difference between conjunctions and prepositions, so we will keep the focus there.

The graphic illustrates the difference between coordinating conjunctions and prepositions like along with, in addition to, and as well as in a sentence. When you use prepositions instead of and, you are subordinating one or more of the objects and creating a sense of hierarchy in the sentence.

If you notice the above graphic, you can see how the conjunction And is different from subordinating prepositions in that there is no hierarchy with the items related through And whereas the preposition subordinates its object. Therefore, the preposition’s precedent is higher up in the hierarchy compared to the preposition’s object.

How prepositions work as modifiers

  • The core parts of speech in an English sentence are the nouns and verbs.
  • Anything that describes a noun or a verb are called modifiers.
  • Adjectives modify nouns directly whereas adverbs modify verbs directly.
  • Prepositions, however, can modify both nouns and verbs indirectly.
  • As Indirect modifiers, prepositions are subordinate within the sentence structure, meaning, they are grammatically unequal.
The graphic shows the function of prepositions in a sentence. Prepositions can modify both nouns and verbs indirectly and are subordinate in a sentence.

Example Sentences: How to Use Prepositions instead of And

At this point, let me introduce the prepositions you could use instead of And in addition to giving you an example set to study.

We can use the prepositions along with, in addition to, and as well as instead of And to connect words to words or phrases to phrase in a sentence. 

Here is an example set to show you the difference of parallelism with And versus subordination with along with. As you study the examples, I want you to keep these two questions in mind for each example sentence:

  1.  How many people live in the house?
  2.  How many people make up the subject of the sentence?
The example sentence shows three grammatically equal subjects, linked together by a conjunction. But what happens when we use prepositions instead of and to link the subjects together?

As you can see from this first example, there are clearly three people living in the house together. Additionally, the subject of the sentence is a collective three: the mother, grandmother, and the brother.

  • The three subjects are connected by commas (,) and the conjunction And, so they are all parallel and grammatically equal.
  • As the verb must agree in number, it is plural.

Now what happens when you use prepositions instead of And?

This example sentence shows how a collective of three subjects in the sentence subordinated one of the subjects out of the sentence and made it part of the predicate.

In this second example, the mother and grandmother remain parallel while the brother has been subordinated by the use of the preposition along with.

While along with has a similar meaning (and use) as And in connecting words and phrases, it does so with different sentence grammar. The “brother” has been subordinated so it is not of equal importance to the two subject nouns: the mother and grandmother, so it is not counted as part of the subject.

Therefore, the sentence has a collective two subjects plus one subordinated object.

  • the subject is still plural, so the verb is also plural.
The graphic contains a second example sentence that shows you how a collective subject was converted into a singular subject with two subordinated objects. The subordinated objects are not counted as part of the subject. This is what happens when you use prepositions instead of and in a sentence.

In this final example, the grandmother and brother have both been subordinated out of the sentence subject, so the mother stands alone.

Therefore, you have a singular subject of one plus two subordinated objects.

  •  As a result, the verb must agree as third person singular, so we add s to conjugate the verb.

Why Subordinate instead of And

When the subjects or objects in a sentence are all grammatically equal, the carry equal emphasis which really means no emphasis.

Hence, you should subordinate to be more expressive. 

The hierarchy that arises allows you to emphasize one or more things in a sentence. 

  • In speaking, the emphasis will be expressed through the intonation of the spoken sentence.
  • Whereas in writing, subordination puts a spotlight on the emphasized subjects or objects.

In the end, subordination helps you to express the following things:

Use Prepositions to Prioritize items in a list

This example sentence shows how to prioritize list items when giving instructions.

Use Prepositions to Differentiate List Items 

This is an example sentence showing how the preposition as well as can help to differentiate two or more items in a list.

Use Prepositions to Convey the Hierarchy

The graphic contains an example sentence showing how we can express hierarchy when we use the preposition along with instead of and.

Use Prepositions instead of And to gain more Fluency

To sum everything up,

  • Understanding how prepositions work in a sentence not only helps you express the relationship to things in place and time, but also to other things. 
  • When using prepositions in this way, you create a sense of hierarchy, differentiation, or classification amongst the related subjects or objects in the sentence.
  • Prepositions can subordinate noun objects or verb objects. If the object of a preposition is a verb, it must come in gerund form (with ing added to the end). 
  • Finally, Using prepositions to subordinate subject nouns may affect the verb’s number agreement.
The thumbnail leads to a free English study guide on how to use certain prepositions instead of the conjunction and

Don't forget to grab my Free Study Guide from the shop

Do you want to keep the learning going? Why not head over to my shop to download the study guide that accompanies this lesson. It contains additional instruction on the rules of parallelism in the sentence and how it compares to subordination with prepositions along with some practice examples. When you go through the checkout, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter so that you get the lesson posts, video lesson, and study guides all delivered to your inbox for free.

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Jon Williams is a graduate of UCLA with a degree in Economics. While doing his undergraduate studies at UCLA, he also tutored microeconomics for other students in the AAP program. After graduation, he went on to become a financial advisor where he learned financial sales and management training. In 2003, he decided to take a gap year, going to teach English in Poland which eventually stretched into 3 years. Upon returning to Los Angeles in 2006, he worked in West Los Angeles for an investment management firm where he spent another 4 years in a financial and investment environment. Ultimately, though, his love for teaching led him to move back to Poland where he founded his business Native 1 English Learning. Now he operates a private teaching practice, posts articles and lessons on his blog, creates online courses, and publishes YouTube video English lessons.

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