English · Grammar · SSC & HSC
Appropriate Prepositions — List with Meaning & Examples
The fixed word-plus-preposition combinations the board sets, with meanings and example sentences.
An appropriate preposition is the one particular preposition a given word takes by convention — "afraid of", "depend on", "consist of". There is no rule that predicts them, because the pairing belongs to the word rather than to the meaning, so the item is tested as vocabulary. The reliable method is to learn each word with its preposition and one short example sentence attached.
Where it is set: SSC & HSC English 2nd Paper — Grammar
Why these have to be learned rather than reasoned out
An appropriate preposition belongs to a particular word by convention. There is no logic connecting afraid to of, depend to on and consist to of — the pairing is simply what English speakers settled on, and it often differs from the pairing the same idea takes in Bengali.
Because of that, this item is vocabulary, not grammar. The efficient method is to learn each combination attached to one short sentence, so that when the word appears in an exam the sentence comes back with it.
- ✓ He is afraid of dogs. — not “afraid from”
- ✓ The book consists of ten chapters. — not “consists in” or “consists with”
Adjectives with their prepositions
Adjectives take the largest share of these combinations, and they are the group most often set, because an adjective is usually followed directly by its preposition with nothing in between. That makes the pairing easy to test and easy to get wrong.
Two patterns inside the group are worth noticing. Adjectives of feeling towards a person tend to take with — angry with, pleased with, satisfied with — while adjectives of feeling about a thing tend to take of or at. And adjectives describing a comparison take to rather than than, which is the single commonest error in the whole item.
| Adjective + preposition | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| afraid of | frightened by | She is afraid of the dark. |
| angry with (a person) / at (a thing) | annoyed | He was angry with me. He was angry at the delay. |
| good at / bad at | skilled or unskilled in | He is good at mathematics. |
| fond of | liking | She is fond of music. |
| proud of | taking pride in | We are proud of our language. |
| aware of | knowing about | He is aware of the danger. |
| famous for / notorious for | well known (good / bad) | Sylhet is famous for tea. |
| sorry for | feeling regret | I am sorry for my mistake. |
| jealous of | envious | He is jealous of his brother. |
| confident of | sure about | She is confident of success. |
| similar to / different from | like / unlike | This is different from that. |
| satisfied with | contented | He is satisfied with his result. |
- ✗ He is angry on me. ✓ He is angry with me. — people take with
- ✗ This pen is different than that one. ✓ This pen is different from that one.
Verbs with their prepositions
Verbs behave differently from adjectives because a verb often has an object between it and its preposition, so you have to know not only which preposition to use but where it goes. Apologise is the clearest case: you apologise to a person for a thing, and both prepositions are needed in that order.
A second complication is that several common verbs take more than one preposition with entirely different meanings — look after, look for and look into share a verb and share nothing else. Learn those as separate items rather than as one verb with options.
| Verb + preposition | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| depend on / rely on | trust, need | We depend on farmers for food. |
| consist of | be made up of | Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen. |
| suffer from | be ill with | He is suffering from fever. |
| believe in | have faith in | I believe in hard work. |
| succeed in | manage to do | She succeeded in passing the exam. |
| prefer to | like better than | I prefer tea to coffee. |
| apologise to (a person) for (a thing) | say sorry | He apologised to me for his rudeness. |
| congratulate on | praise for an achievement | I congratulated him on his success. |
| agree with (a person) / to (a proposal) | accept | I agree with you. I agree to your plan. |
| look after / look for / look into | care for / search / investigate | She looks after her mother. |
| deal in (goods) / deal with (a person or matter) | trade / handle | He deals in rice. |
| abide by | obey | We must abide by the law. |
- ✗ I prefer tea than coffee. ✓ I prefer tea to coffee. — prefer takes to, never than
- ✗ He apologised me for the delay. ✓ He apologised to me for the delay.
Nouns with their prepositions
Nouns formed from verbs and adjectives usually keep a preposition, but not always the same one the verb or adjective took. Solve takes a direct object, yet the noun solution takes to; demand as a verb takes an object, yet the noun takes for. So a combination learned in one word class cannot be assumed to carry over.
| Noun + preposition | Example |
|---|---|
| need of / want of | He is in need of money. |
| reason for | What is the reason for your absence? |
| cause of | Carelessness is the cause of the accident. |
| solution to | There is no easy solution to this problem. |
| answer to / reply to | He gave no answer to my question. |
| attitude to / towards | Her attitude towards work has changed. |
| effect on / influence on | Smoking has a bad effect on health. |
| demand for | There is a great demand for skilled workers. |
| access to | Every child should have access to education. |
| faith in / belief in | He has faith in his ability. |
- ✗ What is the reason of your absence? ✓ What is the reason for your absence?
- ✗ Smoking has a bad effect in health. ✓ Smoking has a bad effect on health.
One word, two prepositions, two meanings
A few words take more than one preposition, and the choice changes the meaning. These carry more marks than their number suggests, because a student who has memorised only one of the pair will answer confidently and wrongly.
| Combination | Meaning | Combination | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| agree with (a person) | share an opinion | agree to (a plan) | accept a proposal |
| angry with (a person) | annoyed at someone | angry at (a thing) | annoyed by something |
| deal in (goods) | trade in | deal with (a matter) | handle |
| part from (a person) | leave someone | part with (a thing) | give something up |
| compare to | show a likeness | compare with | examine differences |
| die of (a disease) | cause of death | die from (a cause) | circumstance of death |
- ✓ I agree with you, but I cannot agree to your proposal.
- ✓ He could not part with his old books when he parted from his friends.
Practice
Work through these before you check the answers — the reasoning matters more than the answer.
- He is not aware ___ the danger.
- I prefer coffee ___ tea.
- She is suffering ___ a bad cold.
- We must abide ___ the rules.
- He apologised ___ me ___ his mistake.
- What is the reason ___ your failure?
- Sylhet is famous ___ its tea gardens.
- I congratulated her ___ her brilliant result.
Answers
- of — “aware of”.
- to — “prefer … to”, never “than”.
- from — “suffer from”.
- by — “abide by”.
- to … for — apologise to a person for a thing.
- for — “reason for”.
- for — “famous for”.
- on — “congratulate on”.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and that is the point of the item. The preposition belongs to the individual word by convention rather than by meaning, which is why a dictionary lists it as part of the entry. Any "rule" you are offered is a memory aid, not a rule. Learning each pair inside a short sentence is the only method that holds up under exam pressure.
You agree with a person, because you share their opinion. You agree to a proposal, plan or condition, because you accept it. So “I agree with you” and “I agree to your plan” are both correct, and swapping them is wrong. The same person/thing split governs “angry with” and “angry at”.
The board draws from a stable set of roughly a hundred combinations, and the tables above cover the ones that recur. Rather than trying to memorise a long list at once, learn ten a week with a sentence each and revise them cumulatively — this item rewards spaced repetition more than any other in the paper.
Because prefer already contains the comparison, so it does not take the comparative word than. English fixes its second element with to: “prefer tea to coffee”. The same holds for “superior to”, “inferior to”, “senior to” and “junior to”, all of which reject than for the same reason.
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