ब्लॉग / Preposition Mistakes: 16 Real Examples and How to Fix Them

Preposition Mistakes: 16 Real Examples and How to Fix Them

Prepositions are small words with large consequences. Which one a verb or noun takes is often arbitrary and differs from language to language, so most preposition errors come from translating directly. The examples below are real sentences that people sent to Proofread Bot.

The corrections are written in formal, academic English, so contractions are spelled out in full. Where a contracted or colloquial form is common in everyday writing, it is shown underneath as the informal version.

1. In, on, or at for time

✗ Matt walked to school at the morning.
✓ Matt walked to school in the morning.

✗ Steve met Susie Monday.
✓ Steve met Susie on Monday.

at for clock times and holidays: at 5:00, at night, at Christmas
on for days and dates: on Monday, on July 4
in for longer periods: in the morning, in May, in 2024

2. In, on, or at for place

✗ What did Mary do at class today?
✓ What did Mary do in class today?

✗ I was to New York last summer.
✓ I was in New York last summer.

✗ He played four parts in page 205.
✓ He played four parts on page 205.

✗ They were in the movies.
✓ They were at the movies.

In is used for enclosed spaces and cities; at for points and events; on for surfaces, pages, and lines. "Been to" is correct with the present perfect ("I have been to New York"), but "was to" is not.

3. Wrong preposition after a verb

✗ What happened with you last weekend?
✓ What happened to you last weekend?

✗ An airstrike wipes about a facility producing the weapon.
✓ An airstrike wipes out a facility producing the weapon.

✗ She's married with a dentist.
✓ She is married to a dentist.

✗ The North Korean and Russian revolutions began because similar reasons.
✓ The North Korean and Russian revolutions began because of similar reasons.

Because introduces a clause with a verb ("because they were poor"); because of introduces a noun ("because of poverty").

4. Prepositions that are not needed

✗ We discussed about his plans.
✓ We discussed his plans.

✗ Where did they go to?
✓ Where did they go?

✗ The French were thriving off of fur.
✓ The French thrived on the fur trade.

See more in redundant words in academic writing.

5. Missing prepositions

✗ Josh goes the store.
✓ Josh goes to the store.

✗ Most experts agree that no other chemistry is going disrupt lithium-ion.
✓ Most experts agree that no other chemistry is going to disrupt lithium-ion.

6. Ending a sentence with a preposition

✗ Who did you learn that from?
✓ From whom did you learn that?
Informal: Who did you learn that from?

Ending a sentence with a preposition is not a grammatical error, and the old "rule" against it is widely rejected today. In very formal writing, however, moving the preposition forward ("from whom") is still common. Choose the version that reads more naturally in context.

Learn them in pairs

Because preposition choice is so often arbitrary, it is more effective to learn verb–preposition and adjective–preposition pairs together: depend on, interested in, responsible for, different from, married to. Proofread Bot recognizes thousands of these combinations and flags the ones that do not match.

अभी प्रूफ़रीड करें