Is 'With' a Preposition?

Short answer

• Yes, "with" is a preposition. A preposition is a word that links a noun or pronoun to another part of a sentence, and "with" does exactly that job. In "She arrived with her brother," the word "with" links "brother" to the rest of the sentence and shows that her brother accompanied her. In "He cut the paper with scissors," the same word shows the tool that was used. Cambridge Grammar lists "with" alongside "in" and "over" as a preposition, and it notes that prepositions most often come before a noun phrase, a pronoun, or the "-ing" form of a verb. So if you searched for this question because a teacher, a test, or a grammar checker made you doubt it, the short answer is settled: "with" is a preposition, and it is one of the most common ones in English.

Introduction

“With” is a small word that carries a large workload. It appears in everyday sentences about company, tools, appearance, feelings, and agreement, and it changes its meaning with its surroundings. That flexibility is also why it confuses learners. A word that can mean “together with,” “by means of,” “having,” and “because of” does not look like a word with one fixed definition, and students sometimes wonder whether it belongs to some other word class instead.

It does not. “With” behaves like a preposition in the standard tests for that word class: it comes before a noun or pronoun, forms a phrase with it, and that phrase then describes something else in the sentence. The rest of this article explains each part of that claim, works through the main jobs “with” performs, compares it with words it is often confused with, and clears up the old rule about ending a sentence with a preposition.

1. What a Preposition Is

A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in a sentence. The Cambridge Grammar guide puts it this way: prepositions show a relationship in space or time, or a logical relationship between two or more people, places, or things. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) adds a structural point: a preposition begins a prepositional phrase, and that phrase ends with the noun or pronoun that the preposition introduces.

Consider a simple sentence: “The book is on the table.” The word “on” relates “table” to “book” by giving the book’s position. Change the preposition and the relationship changes: “The book is under the table” gives a different position, and “The book is about the table” gives a different relationship, one of subject matter rather than place. The preposition is the hinge of the sentence.

A prepositional phrase is the preposition plus its object plus any words that modify that object. In “She walked with her old friend,” the prepositional phrase is “with her old friend.” The word “with” is the preposition, “friend” is the object of the preposition, and “her old” modifies “friend.” Purdue OWL notes that prepositional phrases generally function as adjectives or adverbs: they modify a noun, a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. In “The woman with the red umbrella is my aunt,” the phrase “with the red umbrella” acts like an adjective because it describes the noun “woman.” In “He spoke with confidence,” the phrase “with confidence” acts like an adverb because it describes how he spoke.

Three tests help you recognize a preposition in any sentence. First, the word comes before a noun or pronoun (or a phrase built around one). Second, the word plus its object can usually be removed, and the sentence still has a main clause, even if it loses detail. Third, the word expresses a relationship, such as place, time, accompaniment, instrument, or cause, rather than naming a thing, an action, or a quality. “With” passes all three tests, as the next section shows.

It also helps to know what a preposition is not. A preposition is not a conjunction, which joins clauses or words of equal rank, as “and” and “but” do. It is not an adverb, which modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb without taking an object. The same spelling can belong to more than one word class in different sentences: in the informal question “Are you coming with?” it has no object and behaves more like an adverbial particle. That edge case is covered in Section 4. In its normal use, however, “with” takes an object and is a preposition.

2. Why “With” Qualifies as a Preposition

“With” qualifies because it meets the definition in every standard reference. Cambridge Grammar names “with” directly in its list of prepositions: “Words such as in, over and with are prepositions.” The Cambridge Dictionary entry for “with” labels it a preposition and then organizes its meanings into groups: company, method, description, relation, cause, and more. When a dictionary and a grammar reference agree this plainly, the classification is not a matter of opinion.

Apply the three tests from Section 1 to a set of ordinary sentences:

• Accompaniment: “I went to the store with my sister.” The word “with” comes before the noun phrase “my sister,” and it expresses the relationship of company.
• Instrument: “She opened the box with a key.” The word “with” comes before “a key,” and it expresses the means by which the box was opened.
• Possession or description: “The house with the blue door is for sale.” The word “with” comes before “the blue door,” and the phrase describes the house.
• Cause: “His hands shook with cold.” The word “with” comes before “cold,” and it expresses the cause of the shaking.

In each case, removing the prepositional phrase leaves a complete sentence that has lost information: “I went to the store.” “She opened the box.” That is exactly how prepositional phrases behave. They add a relationship; they are not the core subject and verb of the sentence.

Another useful check is the pronoun test. When a pronoun follows a preposition, English uses the object form, not the subject form. You say “with me,” “with him,” and “with them,” never “with I” or “with they.” The Glencoe grammar overview makes the same point with the verb “to”: “Jessica bowed to me,” not “to I.” If a word forces the object form of a following pronoun, that word is acting as a preposition. “With” forces it every time.

3. The Main Jobs “With” Does

“With” has several distinct meanings, and the object that follows it usually tells you which one is in play. The groups below follow the sense divisions used by the Cambridge Dictionary, restated in plain language with fresh examples.

Accompaniment: together with someone or something

This is the most familiar use. “With” says that a person or thing is present alongside another.

• “She had lunch with her colleagues.”
• “He traveled with his family.”
• “The children played with their neighbors.”

The test for this meaning is substitution: you can often replace “with” with “together with” without changing the meaning.

Instrument or method: by means of something

Here “with” names the tool, device, or method used to do something. This use answers the question “How?” or “Using what?”

• “She wrote the note with a pencil.”
• “He fixed the chair with glue and a clamp.”
• “They communicated with hand signals.”

Possession, description, or characteristic: having something

“With” can describe a person or thing by naming something it has or a feature it carries. In this use, the prepositional phrase works like an adjective.

• “The man with the gray beard runs the bakery.”
• “A room with a view costs more than a room without one.”
• “She adopted a dog with floppy ears.”

This use is extremely common in descriptions, and it is one reason “with” appears so often in writing. It packs a description into a short phrase instead of a separate clause: “the man with the gray beard” is shorter than “the man who has a gray beard,” and it keeps the sentence moving.

Cause or reason: because of something

“With” can give the cause of a state or action, especially a physical or emotional one.

• “Her voice shook with excitement.”
• “The field was white with frost.”
• “He was red with embarrassment.”

In these sentences, the object of “with” is the cause, and the main clause is the effect. “With” is the natural choice for a state that shows itself in the body or in appearance: shaking, trembling, or blushing.

Manner: in a particular way

“With” can describe the manner of an action, usually with an abstract noun as its object.

• “She accepted the award with grace.”
• “He answered with patience.”
• “They worked with enthusiasm.”

These phrases answer “How?” and they modify the verb. Compare “She accepted the award gracefully”: the adverb “gracefully” and the phrase “with grace” do the same job.

Relation or connection: concerning something

“With” can mark the topic or the other party in a relationship, agreement, dispute, or comparison.

• “The problem with this plan is its cost.”
• “She agreed with her manager about the deadline.”
• “What is wrong with the printer?”

This group includes fixed verb pairings to memorize as units: agree with, argue with, deal with, cope with, and compare with. In each pair, “with” is still a preposition and the noun after it is still its object, but the pairing is idiomatic: you agree “with” a person, while you agree “to” a proposal or “on” a plan. The verb chooses the preposition, and the choice is a matter of convention rather than logic.

Support, opposition, and alignment

A related use marks which side someone is on, or whether they stand for or against something.

• “I am with you on this decision.”
• “Are you with us or against us?”
• “She stood with the workers during the dispute.”

Here “with” means something close to “on the same side as” or “in support of.” The company is now metaphorical, a matter of loyalty rather than location.

“With” in fixed expressions

English also keeps fixed expressions built on “with,” where the meaning cannot be worked out word by word: “with all due respect,” “with regard to,” “in line with,” and “along with.” In these, “with” is still a preposition grammatically, but learners should treat the whole expression as a unit of vocabulary.

4. “With” Versus Similar Words

Most mistakes with “with” come from choosing it where another word fits better, or from confusing it with a word that looks similar. This section works through the common confusions one at a time.

“With” versus “by”

Both words can express means, but they divide the work. “With” names the instrument: “She painted the wall with a roller.” “By” names the agent in a passive sentence, or the broader method of travel or communication: “The wall was painted by a professional.” “She sent the letter by mail.” A useful rule of thumb: if you can rephrase the sentence with “using,” then “with” is the right choice. “Using a roller” matches “with a roller.” It does not match “by mail,” because mail is a system, not a tool in the hand.

“With” versus “from”

“From” marks origin, separation, or source: “She borrowed the book from the library.” “With” does not mark origin. A sentence like “She got the idea with her teacher” sounds wrong because the teacher is the source of the idea, and the source takes “from.” Reserve “with” for company, instrument, possession, or cause, and use “from” when something comes out of or away from a starting point.

“With” versus “and”

Beginners sometimes treat “with” as a synonym for “and,” but the two words do different jobs. “And” joins two items of equal rank: “Tom and Jerry arrived.” “With” makes one item accompany another. In “Tom arrived with Jerry,” Tom is the subject and Jerry is the object of the preposition. That matters for verb agreement: “Tom with Jerry is coming” takes a singular verb, while “Tom and Jerry are coming” takes a plural verb.

“With” versus “of”

“Of” marks possession differently from “with.” “The color of the car” names a property that belongs to the car, while “the car with the red paint” describes the car by a feature it carries. As a rough guide, “of” links a part or quality to its whole, and “with” attaches a description to a noun.

“With” versus “without”

“Without” is the direct opposite of “with” in its accompaniment and possession senses: “tea with sugar” versus “tea without sugar.” Note that “without” is itself a preposition, not simply “with” plus a negative. It takes an object in the same way: “She left without her keys.”

When “with” is not a preposition

There are two situations in which “with” steps outside its usual role. The first is informal, adverb-like use at the end of a clause, where it has no object: “Are you coming with?” In formal writing, this is usually completed as “Are you coming with us?” The second is its role inside phrasal verbs such as “put up with,” where “with” combines with a verb to create a meaning that belongs to the whole verb phrase. In both cases, the exception is marked and idiomatic. Its default role, and the role tested in school and in reference works, is that of a preposition.

5. Common Uses and Confusions

Beyond choosing the right word, learners run into a handful of recurring problems with “with.” Most of them have simple fixes.

Object pronouns after “with”

Always use the object form of a pronoun after “with”: me, him, her, us, them, and whom. “Come with me” is correct, and “Come with I” is not. This rule holds even when the sentence is long or the pronoun is far from the verb: “She shared the news with him and me,” not “with he and I.” When two pronouns follow “with,” both take the object form. This is the single most reliable way to sound correct with “with,” and it is worth practicing until it is automatic.

“With whom” in formal writing

In formal writing, a question or relative clause that moves “with” to the front pairs it with “whom”: “With whom did you speak?” In everyday speech and most modern writing, the preposition stays at the end and “who” is common: “Who did you speak with?” Both are grammatical. Match the version to the setting. Section 7 deals with that myth directly.

“With” plus a verb form

“With” is followed by a noun, a pronoun, or a noun phrase. When a verb follows “with,” it usually appears as a gerund, the “-ing” form acting as a noun: “With practice, she improved.” But there is a trap here. To express a method as an action, English more often uses “by” plus a gerund: “She improved by practicing daily.” “With practicing daily” sounds unnatural to native speakers. So the guide is: “with” plus a noun for a tool or companion, and “by” plus a gerund for a method expressed as an action.

“With” in questions and relative clauses

Questions often strand “with” at the end: “What are you doing with that?” Relative clauses do the same: “That is the friend I went to school with.” The formal versions (“With what are you doing that?”) are correct but formal. The stranded versions are correct and natural. Choose based on the register you are writing in, not on fear of a rule that does not exist.

“With” after verbs of emotion and attitude

Verbs such as “agree,” “argue,” “deal,” and “sympathize” each pair with a particular preposition, and “with” is the partner for a person in most of them: you agree with a person and argue with a person. But you agree to a proposal and argue about a topic. The preposition changes with the object, not just with the verb, so learn the verb plus preposition plus object type as a unit.

6. Prepositional Phrases Built on “With”

Once you can spot “with” as a preposition, the next step is to see the whole phrase it builds and the job that phrase does. Purdue OWL stresses that a prepositional phrase begins with the preposition and ends with its object, and that the phrase as a unit functions as an adjective or an adverb. “With” phrases follow the same pattern, and they are among the most useful phrases in English because they add detail without adding a clause.

“With” phrases as adjectives

When a “with” phrase follows a noun and describes it, it works as an adjective phrase. The phrase answers “Which one?” or “What kind?”

• “The student with the highest score won the prize.” (Which student? The one with the highest score.)
• “Bring the box with the red label.” (Which box? The one with the red label.)
• “She wore a dress with silver buttons.” (What kind of dress? One with silver buttons.)

Adjective phrases usually sit directly after the noun they describe. Moving them can change the meaning or create confusion. “She saw the man with the telescope” is ambiguous: the man may have the telescope, or she may have used it to see him. Place the phrase next to the noun you mean.

“With” phrases as adverbs

When a “with” phrase modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, it works as an adverb phrase. It answers “How?” “When?” “Why?” or “In what way?”

• “He completed the task with care.” (How did he complete it? With care.)
• “She trembled with fear.” (Why did she tremble? Because of fear.)
• “They spoke with one voice.” (In what way did they speak? In unison.)

Adverb phrases are more mobile than adjective phrases. “With care, he completed the task” and “He completed the task with care” mean the same thing, and the choice between them is a matter of emphasis. Putting the phrase first gives it more weight, which is useful when the manner is the point of the sentence.

Finding the object of “with”

To find the object, ask “with what?” or “with whom?” after the verb, and take the noun or pronoun that answers. In “He fixed the bike with a wrench,” the answer is “a wrench.” In “She argued with her brother about money,” the answer is “her brother,” and “about money” is a separate phrase with its own object. Being able to pick out the object is the practical skill behind this article, and it transfers to every other preposition you learn.

7. Ending a Sentence With a Preposition

The old classroom rule says never end a sentence with a preposition. The rule is a myth, and modern style authorities say so plainly. The MLA Style Center states: “Despite what you may have heard, it is perfectly acceptable to end a clause or sentence with a preposition. Keeping prepositions at the end of clauses usually sounds more natural and less formal because it follows spoken English.”

That advice covers “with” as well as any other preposition. “Who are you going with?” is grammatical, and so is the formal alternative, “With whom are you going?” The formal version simply sounds stiff in conversation. The choice is one of register, not correctness.

There is one genuine caution, and it is not about position at all. It is about useless prepositions. The sentence “Where are you at?” does not need “at,” because “Where are you?” asks the same question. The fault is the extra word, not its position. The same point applies to “with”: if removing “with” leaves the meaning unchanged, remove it. If removing it breaks the sentence, keep it, wherever it falls. A good test is to delete the final preposition and read the sentence again. If the sentence still works, the preposition was padding. If it collapses, the preposition was doing real work, and no rule requires you to move it.

So the short version is simple. Ending a sentence with “with” is fine. Ending a sentence with a “with” that adds nothing is weak writing, but the weakness is redundancy, not placement. Keep the prepositions that earn their place, and cut the ones that do not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is “with” always a preposition?

No, but it is a preposition in its normal use. In standard sentences it comes before a noun or pronoun and forms a prepositional phrase. In informal speech it can appear without an object, as in “Are you coming with?”, where it behaves more like an adverbial particle. In phrasal verbs such as “put up with,” it forms part of a verb phrase. These are edge cases. The default classification, given by Cambridge Grammar and the Cambridge Dictionary, is preposition.

What is the object of “with” in a sentence?

The object is the noun or pronoun that follows “with” and completes its phrase. In “She went with her sister,” the object is “sister.” In “He spoke with them,” the object is “them.” When a pronoun is the object, use the object form: me, him, her, us, them, or whom, never I, he, she, we, they, or who in formal writing.

What is the difference between “with” and “by”?

Both can express means, but “with” names the instrument and “by” names the agent or the broader method. You write with a pen, but you travel by train. In a passive sentence, the doer of the action takes “by”: “The letter was written by the manager.” If you can substitute “using,” then “with” is usually the right choice.

Can “with” be used with a verb?

“With” is followed by a noun, a pronoun, or a gerund (the “-ing” form used as a noun), as in “With practice, she improved.” To express a method as an action, English prefers “by” plus a gerund: “She improved by practicing daily.” Saying “with practicing daily” sounds unnatural, so keep “with” for nouns and “by” for gerund methods.

Is it wrong to end a sentence with “with”?

No. The MLA Style Center states that it is perfectly acceptable to end a clause or sentence with a preposition, and that doing so usually sounds more natural. “Who did you come with?” is correct. The formal form “With whom did you come?” is also correct, and it suits formal writing. The only real error is a preposition that adds nothing, as in “Where are you at?”, where removing the final word changes nothing.

What does “with” mean in “the house with the blue door”?

It means the house has or carries the feature named after it. This is the possession or description use of “with,” in which the prepositional phrase works like an adjective describing the noun before it. It is a compact alternative to a relative clause: “the house with the blue door” says the same thing as “the house that has a blue door,” in fewer words.

How do I choose between “with,” “from,” and “of”?

Use “with” for company, instrument, possession, or cause. Use “from” for origin or source: “She borrowed the book from the library.” Use “of” for a part, quality, or possession that belongs to a whole: “The color of the car.” When two options seem possible, test the sentence by rephrasing it with “together with,” “using,” “having,” or “coming from,” and pick the preposition whose paraphrase matches your meaning.

Sources & references

• Cambridge Grammar, "Prepositions and particles" (Cambridge University Press): states that words such as "in," "over," and "with" are prepositions, and that prepositions show a relationship in space or time or a logical relationship between people, places, or things. Opened and read 26 October 2026. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/prepositions-and-particles
• Cambridge Dictionary, entry for "with" (Cambridge University Press): labels "with" a preposition and groups its senses as company, method, description, relation, cause, and support. Opened and read 26 October 2026. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/with
• Purdue OWL, "Prepositions for Time, Place, and Introducing Objects" (Purdue University): defines a prepositional phrase as beginning with the preposition and ending with its object, and notes that such phrases generally function as adjectives or adverbs. Opened and read 26 October 2026. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/prepositions/index.html
• MLA Style Center, "Prepositions" (Modern Language Association): states that a preposition forms a phrase with a noun or pronoun called its object, and that it is perfectly acceptable to end a clause or sentence with a preposition. Opened and read 26 October 2026. https://style.mla.org/prepositions/
• Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Education, grammar overview, Unit 14: defines a prepositional phrase as beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun, names "with" as the preposition in "broke the board with his foot," and notes that object pronouns follow prepositions. Read via search result extract 26 October 2026. https://glencoe.mheducation.com/sites/0078887666/student_view0/unit14/overview.html