Prepositions Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The answer is on: Put this picture on the wall.

On is used for contact with a surface, and a picture hung on a wall touches its surface, just as a book lies on a table.

At marks a point or position (at the door), to marks direction towards something (go to the wall), and in means inside something (a crack in the wall). None of them describes a picture placed against the wall's surface.

Answer: B

The answer is by: By all means we should try to help the poor.

By all means is a fixed idiom meaning 'certainly' or 'in every possible way'. The preposition in it cannot be changed.

'For all means' and 'of all means' are not English idioms. Because 'by' completes the idiom correctly, 'none of these' is also wrong. Compare the opposite idiom, by no means, meaning 'not at all'. Fixed phrases of this kind have to be learnt as wholes, since the preposition in them does not follow a general rule.

Answer: B

The sentence needs into: The minister had promised to look into the matter.

Look into is a phrasal verb meaning to investigate or examine something, which is what a minister promises to do with a complaint or an issue.

The other prepositions change the meaning. Look at means to turn your eyes towards something, look for means to search for something you have lost, and look about means to look around you. None of them means to inquire into a matter.

Answer: A

The answer is at: Open your book at page ten and start reading.

In British and Indian English a book is opened at a particular page, the point at which it lies open. The same preposition is used in open the book at chapter three.

On is used for where something is printed (the table is on page ten), not for where a book is opened, and upon is only a more formal form of on. Over makes no sense here, since nothing is placed above the page.

Answer: B

The answer is with: Each boy and each girl was presented with sweets.

The verb present takes two patterns: present something to someone, or present someone with something. Here the subject of the passive sentence is the people who received the gift (each boy and each girl), so the thing given must follow with.

To would be right only if the sweets were the subject: Sweets were presented to each boy and each girl. Away belongs with give away, not present, and the sentence cannot do without a preposition, so 'no preposition needed' is wrong.

Answer: C

The commission's key gives (C) for.

Here the preposition links the prize to its field: a prize is awarded for an achievement or subject, so 'awarded the Nobel Prize for literature' reads naturally and is the form the key takes. 'Prize for' also matches how the other Nobel fields are commonly phrased in ordinary prose, such as the prize for peace or for physics.

Option A, 'in', is also seen, because the Nobel Foundation names the award the Nobel Prize in Literature, and this is the reason a careful reader may hesitate. Of the two the key prefers 'for', and the other options fail outright: 'of literature' and 'about literature' do not say what the prize was awarded for.

Answer: B

The answer is to: Does the old lady object to my smoking cigarettes?

The verb object is always followed by to when it names the thing disliked: object to the plan, object to noise. Because to here is a preposition, not part of an infinitive, it is followed by a noun or a gerund, which is why the sentence says my smoking and not to smoke.

Object on, object of and object for are not used. The noun object can take of (the object of the exercise), but that is a different word and a different meaning.

Answer: C

The answer is for: We searched for happiness in vain.

Search for means to try to find something you are looking for, here happiness. In vain means without success.

Without a preposition, search takes the place being examined as its object (they searched the house), which does not fit happiness. Search into is not standard; the idea of investigating is expressed by inquire into or look into. After goes with verbs such as seek after or hanker after, not with search, and in would mean looking inside happiness for something else.

Answer: B

The correct preposition is since: She has been working here since 2019.

With the present perfect continuous, since introduces a point in time when the action began (since 2019, since Monday), while for introduces a length of time (for six years, for a week). 2019 is a point, so for is wrong.

From needs a partner to mark the end (from 2019 to 2024) and does not combine with 'has been working' on its own. By marks a deadline (by 2019 she had finished), which is not the sense here.

Answer: C

The answer is at: The committee has not yet arrived at a final decision.

The fixed expression is arrive at a decision, a conclusion, an agreement or a verdict. When arrive means reaching a destination, English uses at for a point (arrive at the station) and in for a city or country (arrive in Delhi). A decision is treated as a point you reach, so at is the collocation.

Arrived on and arrived for are not used with decision, and arrived in a decision is not idiomatic.