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I would like some help learning about "adjective phrases".

Jane is in the meeting room.

Does "in the meeting room" modify "is" or "Jane"?

I think “in the meeting room” is an adjective phrase. Is that right?

Jane, along with other students, is in the meeting room.

Does “along with other students” modify Jane? Is it an adjective phrase?

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  • Where does Mike appear in your example sentences?
    – WendiKidd
    Commented Oct 28, 2013 at 22:22
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    The head of in the meeting room is a preposition, not an adjective. That makes it a preposition phrase, not an adjective phrase.
    – user230
    Commented Oct 29, 2013 at 1:38
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    In the meeting room, however, might (depending on your sectarian affiliation) be called an adjectival use of the preposition phrase, as along with other students is an adverbial use.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Oct 29, 2013 at 3:16
  • Thanks a lot everyone for your help. However, I read from this website (chompchomp.com/terms/prepositionalphrase.htm )that prepositional phrase will function as an adjective or adverb. Preposition is still quite difficult for me. Is "along with other students" an adverbial use? What does it modify? How? I thought it was an adjective and it modify Jane. I don't understand well.
    – nkm
    Commented Oct 29, 2013 at 3:30

1 Answer 1

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Jane is in the meeting room.

"Is" in the sentence could be delusive, so I am going to replace "is" with another word.

Jane stays in the meeting room.

Then I make a gerund.

Staying in the meeting room.

This is a gerund, so that nobody cares who stays. In addition, you can simplify the phrase to:

Staying there.

Isn't it obvious that the "there" modifies "staying"? And remember I replaced "is" with "stay".

Jane, along with other students, is in the meeting room.

This is tough one. If the interpretation is "Jane who is along with other students is in the meeting", the phrase is adjective. However, due to the commas, it doesn't sound that way, but rather:

Being along with other students, Jane is in the meeting room.

And I am going to rephrase it to:

Jane is along with other students and in the meeting room.

To this sentence, you can apply the logic as described for the former sentence.

Honestly, I have a feeling that you could say there is a trick, because you can interpret these sentences different ways, which may lead to different conclusions. But, most prepositional phrases are adverbial unless they directly connect with nouns.

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