Rule 1. When the object in the interrogative pronoun is understood then preposition is placed after the object.
e.g. (i) Whom are you talking to?
(ii) What are you looking for?
Rule 2. When the object of a preposition is relative pronoun 'that' then preposition is placed afterwards.
e.g. (i) He is the boy that everybody talks of.
(ii) This is the book that I was looking for.
Rule 3. When an infinitive qualifies a noun then the preposition should be placed after the infinitive.
e.g. (i) This is a better place to live in.
(ii) He gave me a pen to write with.
Rule 4. These verbs are not used with a preposition Stress, Emphasis, Discuss, Investigate, Comprise, Accompany, Consider, Violate, Demand, Pervade, Resemble, Precede, Resign, Concern, Regret, Await, Lack, Describe, Ensure, Join.
e.g. (i) He has ordered his transfer.
(ii) She is accompanying me.
Rule 5. 'Than' and 'But' are generally conjunction but they can be used as prepositions.
e.g. (i) There was none other than Rakhi.
(ii) There was no one else but Rakhi.
Rule 6. Words take certain preposition with them. See the list below:
∙ Assent to (a proposal)
∙ Avail ourselves of (an opportunity)
∙ Addicted to (drinking, something)
∙ Abstain from (food, indulgence, etc,)
∙ Acquiesce (an opinion in proposal)
∙ Afraid of (a ghost)
∙ Accession to (throne)
∙ Absorbed in (study)
∙ Acquaintance with (a person)
∙ Abundance of (wealth)
∙ Accustomed to (work)
∙ Attain to (a position)
∙ Accede to (a request)
∙ Absolved from (a promise, a sin)
∙ Adhere to (principles)
∙ Abhorrent to (good nature)
∙ Assure of (a thing)
∙ Acquit (someone ) of a charge
∙ Beware of (cheating)
∙ Comply with (one's wishes)
∙ Cured of (a disease)
∙ Conducive to (health)
∙ Condemn to (death)
∙ Comply with (wishes)
∙ Desirous of (doing something)
∙ Devoid of (quality)
∙ Despair of (success)
∙ Deprive of (something)
∙ Duty of (the country)
∙ Eligible for (a post)
∙ Excuse for (a fault)
∙ Exchange a thing (with a person)
∙ Exception to (a rule)
∙ Envious of (a person or a thing)
∙ Elder to (some family member)
∙ Fatal to (one's cause)
∙ Furnish with (clothes)
∙ Fearful of (death)
∙ Greedy for (wealth)
∙ Heir to (ancestral property)
∙ Hopeful of (success)
∙ Healed of (a disease)
∙ Hostile to (a person)
∙ Intimate with (a person)
∙ Insist on a (thing)
∙ Impertinent to (elders)
∙ Innocent of (a crime)
∙ Invite to (dinner)
∙ Intimate with (person)
∙ Insight into (a matter or thing)
∙ Keep to (the left, the point)
∙ Match for (a person)
∙ Mourn for (the dead)
∙ Mad with (anger)
∙ Need for (help)
∙ Notorious for (drinking, doing)
∙ Overwhelmed with (sorrow, grief)
∙ Passion for (study)
∙ Persist in (doing)
∙ Pleased with (a person)
∙ Proud of (a thing)
∙ Prefer to (a thing)
∙ Repent of (a mistake)
∙ Rob (a person) of (a thing)
∙ Short of (money)
∙ Shocked at (a loss)
∙ Sure of (some fact)
∙ Sacred to (a cause)
∙ Invite to (dinner)
∙ Jealous of (a person)
∙ Knock at (the door)
∙ Key to (success)
∙ Match for (a person)
∙ Motive for (an action)
∙ Need of (a thing)
∙ Occur to (mind)
∙ Pay for (One's mistakes)
∙ Peculiar to (a person or a thing)
∙ Pity for (poor, downtrodden)
∙ Preface to (a book)
∙ Pride (on a thing)
∙ Refrain from (doing some wrong)
∙ Respectful to (a person)
∙ Sentence to (punishment)
∙ Side with (a person)
∙ Superior to (a thing)
∙ Search for (a thing)
Rule 7. 'For', 'of', 'To', 'From', 'In', 'with', 'On' are called high frequency prepositions because they are used widely. Below is a list of high frequency preposition with the words they are used.
Preposition 'FOR'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'for' after them apology, appetite, affection, blame, candidate, contempt, craving, capacity,
compassion, compensation, desire, esteem, fondness, guarantee, leisure, liking match, motive, need, opportunity, partiality, pretext,
passion, predilection, remorse, relish.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'for' after them Atone, canvass, care, clamor, feel, mourn, pine, start, stipulate, sue, wish, yearn.
(C) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'for' after them anxious, conspicuous, customary, designed, destined,
eager, eligible, eminent, fit, good, grateful, prepared, proper, penitent, qualified, ready, sorry, sufficient, useful, zealous.
Preposition 'OF'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'of' after them assurance, abhorrence, charge, doubt, experience, failure, observance, proof, result, want.
(B) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'of' after them accused, afraid, apprehensive, apprised, assured, aware,
bereft, bought, cautious certain, characteristic, confident, conscious, convicted, convinced, covetous, defrauded, deprived, desirous,
destitute,. diffident, distrustful, dull, easy, envious, fearful, fond, greedy, guilty, heedless, ignorant, informed, irrespective, lame, lavish,
negligent, productive, proud, regardless, sanguine, sensible, sick, sow, sure, suspicious, tolerant, vain, weary, worthy.
(C) The following verbs take the preposition 'of' after them acquit, beware, boast, complain, die, disapprove, dispose, divest, dream, heal,
judge, repent, taste.
Preposition 'TO'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'to' after them allegiance, approach, assent, access, accession, antidote, antipathy, exception, incentive, indifference, invitation, key, likeness, limit, menace, obedience, opposition, objection, obstruction, postscript, preface,
resemblance, repugnance, sequel, submission, supplement, succession, traitor, temptation.
(B) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'to' after them acceptable, accustomed, abhorrent, addicted, adequate,
adjacent, affectionate, agreeable, akin, alien, alive, analogous, applicable, appropriate, beneficial, callous, common, comparable, condemned, conducive, conformable, congenial, consecrated, contrary creditable, deaf, derogatory, devoted, disastrous, due,
entitled, equal, essential, exposed, faithful, fatal, foreign, hostile, incidental, inclined, indebted, indifferent, indispensable, indulgent, inimical, insensible, injured, irrelevant, favorable, immaterial,. impervious, indigenous,liable, limited, lost, loyal, material, offensive, opposite, obedient, obliged, painful, partial, peculiar,' pertinent, pledged, preferable, prior, profitable, prone, relevant, repugnant, related, responsible, restricted, sacred, sensitive, serviceable, suited, supplementary, true, tantamount.
(C) The following verbs take the preposition 'to' after them accede, adhere, allot, assent, attain, allude, apologize/ adapt, appoint, ascribe, attend, attribute, belong, consent, conduce, conform, lead, listen, object, occur, prefer, pretend, refer, revert, stoop, succumb, testify, yield.
Preposition 'FROM'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'from' after them abstinence, deliverance, descent, digression, escape, exemption, inference.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'from' after them abstain, alight, cease, derive, derogate, desist, detract, deviate, differ, dissent, elicit, emerge, escape, exclude, preserve, prohibit, protect, recoil ,recover, refrain.
Preposition `IN'
(A) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'in' after them accomplished, accurate, :assiduous, absorbed, abstemious, backward, bigot, correct, defective, deficient, experienced, enveloped,. fertile, foiled, honest, implicated, interested involved, lax, remiss, versed.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'in' after them acquiesce, delight, excel, fall, glory, increase, indulge, involve, persevere,
persist.
Preposition 'WITH'
(A) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'with' after then acquainted, affected, beset, busy, compatible, complaint, contemporary, contented, conversant, convulsed, delighted, deluged, disgusted, drenched, endowed, fatigued, fired, gifted,
infected, infested, inspired, intimated, invented, overcome, popular, replete, satisfied, touched.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'with' after them associate, bear, clash, comply, condole, cope, correspond, credit, deluge,
disagree, dispense, expostulate, fill, grapple, meddle, quarrel, remonstrate, side, sympathize, trifle, vie.
Preposition 'ON'
The following verbs take the preposition 'on' after them comment, deliberate, decide, determine, dwell, enlarge, embark, encroach,
impose, insist, intrude, subsist, trample.
Rule 1. When the object in the interrogative pronoun is understood then preposition is placed after the object.
e.g. (i) Whom are you talking to?
(ii) What are you looking for?
Rule 2. When the object of a preposition is relative pronoun 'that' then preposition is placed afterwards.
e.g. (i) He is the boy that everybody talks of.
(ii) This is the book that I was looking for.
Rule 3. When an infinitive qualifies a noun then the preposition should be placed after the infinitive.
e.g. (i) This is a better place to live in.
(ii) He gave me a pen to write with.
Rule 4. These verbs are not used with a preposition Stress, Emphasis, Discuss, Investigate, Comprise, Accompany, Consider, Violate, Demand, Pervade, Resemble, Precede, Resign, Concern, Regret, Await, Lack, Describe, Ensure, Join.
e.g. (i) He has ordered his transfer.
(ii) She is accompanying me.
Rule 5. 'Than' and 'But' are generally conjunction but they can be used as prepositions.
e.g. (i) There was none other than Rakhi.
(ii) There was no one else but Rakhi.
Rule 6. Words take certain preposition with them. See the list below:
∙ Assent to (a proposal)
∙ Avail ourselves of (an opportunity)
∙ Addicted to (drinking, something)
∙ Abstain from (food, indulgence, etc,)
∙ Acquiesce (an opinion in proposal)
∙ Afraid of (a ghost)
∙ Accession to (throne)
∙ Absorbed in (study)
∙ Acquaintance with (a person)
∙ Abundance of (wealth)
∙ Accustomed to (work)
∙ Attain to (a position)
∙ Accede to (a request)
∙ Absolved from (a promise, a sin)
∙ Adhere to (principles)
∙ Abhorrent to (good nature)
∙ Assure of (a thing)
∙ Acquit (someone ) of a charge
∙ Beware of (cheating)
∙ Comply with (one's wishes)
∙ Cured of (a disease)
∙ Conducive to (health)
∙ Condemn to (death)
∙ Comply with (wishes)
∙ Desirous of (doing something)
∙ Devoid of (quality)
∙ Despair of (success)
∙ Deprive of (something)
∙ Duty of (the country)
∙ Eligible for (a post)
∙ Excuse for (a fault)
∙ Exchange a thing (with a person)
∙ Exception to (a rule)
∙ Envious of (a person or a thing)
∙ Elder to (some family member)
∙ Fatal to (one's cause)
∙ Furnish with (clothes)
∙ Fearful of (death)
∙ Greedy for (wealth)
∙ Heir to (ancestral property)
∙ Hopeful of (success)
∙ Healed of (a disease)
∙ Hostile to (a person)
∙ Intimate with (a person)
∙ Insist on a (thing)
∙ Impertinent to (elders)
∙ Innocent of (a crime)
∙ Invite to (dinner)
∙ Intimate with (person)
∙ Insight into (a matter or thing)
∙ Keep to (the left, the point)
∙ Match for (a person)
∙ Mourn for (the dead)
∙ Mad with (anger)
∙ Need for (help)
∙ Notorious for (drinking, doing)
∙ Overwhelmed with (sorrow, grief)
∙ Passion for (study)
∙ Persist in (doing)
∙ Pleased with (a person)
∙ Proud of (a thing)
∙ Prefer to (a thing)
∙ Repent of (a mistake)
∙ Rob (a person) of (a thing)
∙ Short of (money)
∙ Shocked at (a loss)
∙ Sure of (some fact)
∙ Sacred to (a cause)
∙ Invite to (dinner)
∙ Jealous of (a person)
∙ Knock at (the door)
∙ Key to (success)
∙ Match for (a person)
∙ Motive for (an action)
∙ Need of (a thing)
∙ Occur to (mind)
∙ Pay for (One's mistakes)
∙ Peculiar to (a person or a thing)
∙ Pity for (poor, downtrodden)
∙ Preface to (a book)
∙ Pride (on a thing)
∙ Refrain from (doing some wrong)
∙ Respectful to (a person)
∙ Sentence to (punishment)
∙ Side with (a person)
∙ Superior to (a thing)
∙ Search for (a thing)
Rule 7. 'For', 'of', 'To', 'From', 'In', 'with', 'On' are called high frequency prepositions because they are used widely. Below is a list of high frequency preposition with the words they are used.
Preposition 'FOR'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'for' after them apology, appetite, affection, blame, candidate, contempt, craving, capacity,
compassion, compensation, desire, esteem, fondness, guarantee, leisure, liking match, motive, need, opportunity, partiality, pretext,
passion, predilection, remorse, relish.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'for' after them Atone, canvass, care, clamor, feel, mourn, pine, start, stipulate, sue, wish, yearn.
(C) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'for' after them anxious, conspicuous, customary, designed, destined,
eager, eligible, eminent, fit, good, grateful, prepared, proper, penitent, qualified, ready, sorry, sufficient, useful, zealous.
Preposition 'OF'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'of' after them assurance, abhorrence, charge, doubt, experience, failure, observance, proof, result, want.
(B) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'of' after them accused, afraid, apprehensive, apprised, assured, aware,
bereft, bought, cautious certain, characteristic, confident, conscious, convicted, convinced, covetous, defrauded, deprived, desirous,
destitute,. diffident, distrustful, dull, easy, envious, fearful, fond, greedy, guilty, heedless, ignorant, informed, irrespective, lame, lavish,
negligent, productive, proud, regardless, sanguine, sensible, sick, sow, sure, suspicious, tolerant, vain, weary, worthy.
(C) The following verbs take the preposition 'of' after them acquit, beware, boast, complain, die, disapprove, dispose, divest, dream, heal,
judge, repent, taste.
Preposition 'TO'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'to' after them allegiance, approach, assent, access, accession, antidote, antipathy, exception, incentive, indifference, invitation, key, likeness, limit, menace, obedience, opposition, objection, obstruction, postscript, preface,
resemblance, repugnance, sequel, submission, supplement, succession, traitor, temptation.
(B) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'to' after them acceptable, accustomed, abhorrent, addicted, adequate,
adjacent, affectionate, agreeable, akin, alien, alive, analogous, applicable, appropriate, beneficial, callous, common, comparable, condemned, conducive, conformable, congenial, consecrated, contrary creditable, deaf, derogatory, devoted, disastrous, due,
entitled, equal, essential, exposed, faithful, fatal, foreign, hostile, incidental, inclined, indebted, indifferent, indispensable, indulgent, inimical, insensible, injured, irrelevant, favorable, immaterial,. impervious, indigenous,liable, limited, lost, loyal, material, offensive, opposite, obedient, obliged, painful, partial, peculiar,' pertinent, pledged, preferable, prior, profitable, prone, relevant, repugnant, related, responsible, restricted, sacred, sensitive, serviceable, suited, supplementary, true, tantamount.
(C) The following verbs take the preposition 'to' after them accede, adhere, allot, assent, attain, allude, apologize/ adapt, appoint, ascribe, attend, attribute, belong, consent, conduce, conform, lead, listen, object, occur, prefer, pretend, refer, revert, stoop, succumb, testify, yield.
Preposition 'FROM'
(A) The following nouns take the preposition 'from' after them abstinence, deliverance, descent, digression, escape, exemption, inference.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'from' after them abstain, alight, cease, derive, derogate, desist, detract, deviate, differ, dissent, elicit, emerge, escape, exclude, preserve, prohibit, protect, recoil ,recover, refrain.
Preposition `IN'
(A) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'in' after them accomplished, accurate, :assiduous, absorbed, abstemious, backward, bigot, correct, defective, deficient, experienced, enveloped,. fertile, foiled, honest, implicated, interested involved, lax, remiss, versed.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'in' after them acquiesce, delight, excel, fall, glory, increase, indulge, involve, persevere,
persist.
Preposition 'WITH'
(A) The following adjectives and participles take the preposition 'with' after then acquainted, affected, beset, busy, compatible, complaint, contemporary, contented, conversant, convulsed, delighted, deluged, disgusted, drenched, endowed, fatigued, fired, gifted,
infected, infested, inspired, intimated, invented, overcome, popular, replete, satisfied, touched.
(B) The following verbs take the preposition 'with' after them associate, bear, clash, comply, condole, cope, correspond, credit, deluge,
disagree, dispense, expostulate, fill, grapple, meddle, quarrel, remonstrate, side, sympathize, trifle, vie.
Preposition 'ON'
The following verbs take the preposition 'on' after them comment, deliberate, decide, determine, dwell, enlarge, embark, encroach,
impose, insist, intrude, subsist, trample.