Rihan uses prepositions much as English does. Rihan also has several postpositions. Postpositions work exactly as do prepositions; they simply come after the noun phrase instead of before it.

Prepositions and postpositions follow no specific rules. The noun phrase that follows or precedes them can be in any of the three cases, depending upon the positional, and some positionals are affixed onto their noun, while others stand alone. You'll simply have to memorize each one and its use, though there are some general rules that may help.

To

In English, the generic word "to" is used in a number of grammatical situations, and unfortunately it doesn't translate directly into one Rihan word. Its various meanings in English are handled by several words in Rihan.

The word i is used in addressing people, such as at the beginning of a speech or letter, or when presenting a gift, e.g. "To all," "To John." The noun following it is in the Nominative-Accusative case.

Ih is used for indicating the receiver of a verb's action. It does exactly the same thing as the Dative case of a noun, and, no surprise, the noun following it will be the Dative case. In most instances, it isn't necessary to use ih, and it typically should be left out in speech. You may encounter it in written Rihan or in some spoken dialects of the language, but standard Rihan uses it only to emphasize the indirect object.

In this use, the point is being emphasized that the ball was given to Jisit and not Hexce.

Ru is used when expressing distance or destination, e.g. until, as far as. The Nominative-Accusative follows it.

Ssiun indicates direction, e.g towards. It's also followed by the Nominative-Accusative case.

For and Inside

"For" is also a complicated preposition in Rihan. It has four different instances, two of which include ssiun, where it means the same thing as "towards."

In that use, ssiun is followed by the Nominative-Accusative case. Ssiun can also be followed by the Dative case. When that occurs, it means "for" in the sense of "for someone" or "for something."

This brings up one of the general rules for prepositions and postpositions. When a positional has the sense of direction or movement, it is usually followed by the Nominative-Accusative case. When it indicates location, it is usually followed by the Dative case. This happens with many positionals.

To illustrate further, let's look at hrrafv, "inside."

We'll learn the other positionals for "for" in a latter lesson.

Hrrau and H'rau

One of the most commonly encountered prepositions is hrrau. It is also written and pronounced as h'rau in some regional dialects and in informal speech. Hrrau is used in situations where in English we would use "at," "in" and "on/onto." Like ssiun, hrrau follows the general rule described above and can take either the Nominative-Accusative case or the Dative case, depending upon its context.

In the first example, we use the appositive indicator, ahr', since both the noun of the sentence and the prepositional phrase describe the subject. Ahr' is used in most instances where a prepositional phrase describes location.

For "in," only the Dative is used. The Nominative-Accusative version is provided by hrrafv, "inside," as per above.

Mibh

Mibh is a postpostional that also follows the same general rule as does hrrafv and hrrau. You would use mibh in situations where in English we would use "on top" or "atop."