English Preposition

A preposition is a word or group of words that shows the 
relationship--in time, space, or some other senses--between its 
object (the noun or pronoun that follows the preposition) and 
another word in the sentence:

Mary put her books into a bag.
('In' shows the spatial relationship between the verb 'put' 
and the object of the preposition 'bag'.)

Jack kicked the ball into his room. ('into' indicates the 
direction which the ball traveled.)   

There are three kinds of prepositions, simple, compound, and 
phrasal. The following are representative examples of each:

1. Simple: into, for, off, with
2. Compound: alongside, throughout, underneath
3. Phrasal: across from, near to, in place of   

A list of most of the common prepositions in English:

aboard, about, above, according to, across, across from, after, 
against, along, alongside, alongside of, along with, amid, among, 
apart from, around, aside from, at, away from, back of, because 
of, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, 
beyond, but, by, by means of, concerning, considering, despite, 
down, down from, during, except, except for, excepting for, from, 
from among, from between, from under, in, in addition to, 
in behalf of, in front of, in place of, in regard to, inside, 
inside of, in spite of, instead of, into, like, near, near to, of, 
off, on, on account of, on behalf of, onto, on top of, opposite, 
out, out of, outside, outside of, over, over to, owing to, past, 
prior to, regarding, round, round about, save, since, subsequent 
to, together, with, through, throughout, till, to, toward, under, 
underneath, until, unto, up, up to, upon, with, within, without   
 
A prepositional phrase includes the preposition, the object of 
the preposition, and the modifiers of the object. It may function 
as an adverb or an adjective:

The cat climbed on the table.
(The phrase describes 'climbed', so it's an adverb.)

The park by the lake is a great place to play soccer.
(The phrase acts as an adjective because it gives more information 
about the park.)