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| In the English language, some words can function as various parts of speech. |
| One example is the word 'but'. Most English learners have been probably taught that 'but' is a conjunction which connects words, sentences, phrases or clauses like in the sentence: "She is happy but he is sad." |
| Other than being a conjunction, the word 'but' can also carry out the task of a preposition and in this case, 'but' has the same meaning as 'except'. |
| In this example: "There is nobody in the house but my mother.", the speaker says that everybody in their has has gone out except for their mother. 'But' as a preposition is followed by a noun or an object pronoun just like all the other prepositions we know. Very often, we encounter sentences such as: "I can't help but eat chocolate." and "I'm too lazy to do anything but (to)sleep." The word 'but' is followed by the words do and sleep which are both verbs. |
| Take note however, that these verbs do not function as verbs but as nouns in these sentences. And as such, these verbs are called 'verbals'. |
| There are three kinds of verbals: gerunds, infinitives, and participles. 'To' in an infinitive is omitted when used after the preposition but. |