Analyze the following scheme, point out the elements of the sentence and the predicative construction. Compare it to the scheme of the same construction with the Infinitive

Examples of Objects of Prepositions

The noun (or pronoun) governed by a preposition (i.e., words like "in," "on," "at," "by," "near") is known as the object of a preposition. In each example below, the preposition is bold and the object of the preposition is shaded.

• 
  Lee lives near Brighton.
  
• 
  He lives among us.
  

When talking about the object of a preposition, grammarians like to sharpen the focus, so the term "object of a preposition" refers to the head noun in any noun phrase. All the other words in the phrase are relegated to "modifiers." In each example below, the preposition is bold, the object of the preposition (i.e., the head noun) is also bold and shaded, and the modifiers are just shaded.

• 
  Lee lives near a pub.
  

(The object of the preposition is "pub," and "a" is a modifier.)

• 
  He lives among his old friends..
  
• 
  When I was younger, I felt like a man trapped inside a woman’s body. Then I was born. (Comedian Yianni Agisilaou)
  

It can get complicated.

• 
  You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans. (President Ronald Reagan)
  

(In this example, "his" and "of eating jellybeans" are modifiers for "way." Of note though, "of" is a preposition with its own object of a preposition, "eating.")

Here's a quirk. When the object of the preposition is a noun clause, there's no head noun, so the whole clause is described as the object of the preposition.

• 
  I saw a documentary on how ships are kept together . Riveting! (Comedian Stewart Francis)
  

Read more about objects of prepositions.