Prepositional verbs
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| In the office, I'm concentrating on my work |
The sentence above has two prepositions.
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What are the two prepositions? What is different about them? Click here when you have thought about that. |
- The first preposition is IN
- This preposition tells us where the action
is happening. It is connected to the office.
Other examples of prepositions doing this are:
I took a holiday in July (telling us when)
I came here for the sunshine (telling us why)
He is waiting on the platform (telling us where)
These prepositions connect a verb with a noun. - The second preposition is ON
- This preposition does not tell us when, why or where.
It connects the verb to the object.
We do not always need a preposition so we can say, for example:
I am doing my work
I have finished the job
I have started writing
and so on. In these sentences, the verbs (do, finish and start) are followed immediately by the object (my work, the job and writing) and we do not need a preposition.
Some verbs, however, always need a preposition when they are followed by the objects. For example:
I complained about the food
I asked for a different meal
I insisted on having a new dish
etc.
In these sentences, the preposition is not connected to a noun. The preposition comes with the verb. They are called prepositional verbs and that is what this lesson is about.
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So, what's the problem? |
There are two problems, in fact:
- You have to learn the verb plus the preposition as a single piece of language because you cannot guess which preposition you should use.
- These verbs are not phrasal verbs so you cannot separate the
verb and the preposition. For example, it is possible to
say:
I cut the food up
or
I filled the form in
because these are phrasal verbs and you can usually separate the verb and the adverb with the object.
Very often, when the object is a pronoun, you must separate the verb:
I cut it up
I filled it in
NOT
I cut up it
I filled in it
With prepositional verbs you can NEVER separate the verb and the preposition with the object. So we can say:
I complained about the food
and
I complained about it
BUT NOT
I complained the food about
or
I complained it about
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Two sorts of prepositional verbs |
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In this list, five of the sentences are correct and five
are wrong. What do the verbs mean? (use a dictionary if you need one) Can you see which ones are wrong? Can you say why? Click here when you have thought about that and written down the numbers of the wrong and right sentences. |
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- Here are the answers:
- Sentence 1: I admitted to breaking the window
- This verb means agree that something is true.
The sentence is correct because admit to is always followed by an object. We can also say, for example
She admitted to the mistake
or
She admitted to making a mess - Sentence 2: It amounted
- This verb means make a total.
The sentence is wrong because amount to always takes an object. We have to say something like:
It amounted to £5
or
It amounted to over 10 kilos - Sentence 3: I admitted
- This sentence is wrong because admit to must have an object (see sentence 1)
- Sentence 4: I argued about the price
- This sentence is correct because we can have an object with
the verb argue about. WE can also say, for
example:
They argued about which film to see
or
They argued about the government - Sentence 5: I longed
- This verb means want very much.
This sentence is wrong because we must say what we wanted. The verb always takes an object so we can have, for example:
I longed for my holiday to start
or
I longed for a letter from her - Sentence 6: I argued
- This sentence is correct because we do not always have to say what we argued about.
- Sentence 7: I looked at the bird
- This sentence is correct because we usually have an object with look at.
- Sentence 8: I relied
- This verb means depend on or trust.
The sentence is wrong because rely on always takes an object so we need to say, e.g.:
I relied on his help
or
I relied on you to be here - Sentence 9: I looked
- This sentence is correct because we do not always have to have an object with this verb.
- Sentence 10: He vouched for
- This verb means guarantee something or say that
someone is honest and trustworthy.
The sentence is wrong because vouch for always takes an object so we need to say, for example:
I vouched for him
or
She vouched for the truth of what I said
Here is a list of common prepositional verbs. The ones on
the left always take an object. The ones on the right can take
an object or they can stand alone without an object.
We call the verbs on the left transitive and the verbs on the right
intransitive. In a dictionary, you will often see that this is
marked.
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Look in your dictionary now for any words you do not know and see how transitivity and intransitivity are marked. |
| Transitive verbs | Intransitive or transitive verbs | |
|
account for admit to amount to bear on consist of count on long for rely on stick to suspect of thank for vouch for |
abstain from approve of argue about ask for care about comment on complain about concentrate on conform to connive at depend on decide on hang around insist on |
laugh at look at object to participate in plan on quarrel about row about succeed in suffer from react to refrain from talk of vote for wish for |
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Be careful! |
Do not think that in this sentence:
I decided to go
we have the verb decide and the preposition to.
We do not.
This is the verb followed by the to-infinitive of the verb
go.
Verbs in English often come linked like this. For example:
I want to come to help
I intend to go later
I remembered to buy her a present
etc. and we do not have the preposition to in any of these
sentences. They are all verbs followed by a to-infinitive.
The test is to put a noun or an -ing form, after
decide and then we have:
I decided on the blue one
or
I decided on holidaying in France
because the preposition which goes with decide is on.
Here is another example:
We can say:
I plan to have a holiday
but, again, the is the verb followed by the to-infinitive.
When it is followed by a noun or an -ing form, it works
like this:
I plan on seeing him tomorrow
I plan on a new job next year.
All prepositions in English can be followed by an -ing form.
In the tests at the end, you need to be careful not to make this mistake.
There are three linked tests:
| Test 1 | Is the sentence right or wrong? |
| Test 2 | Which preposition goes with which verb (1)? |
| Test 3 | Which preposition goes with which verb (2)? |