Prepositions Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The blank takes for: I have no desire for fame.

The noun desire is followed by for when it names the thing wanted: a desire for money, a desire for peace. The verb behaves differently (to desire fame, with no preposition), and the noun can also take an infinitive (a desire to win), but before a noun the idiom is desire for.

Desire of is an old-fashioned form no longer used in standard English, desire in has no such sense, and to would need a verb after it (a desire to be famous), not the noun fame.

Answer: A

The blank takes on: I will come on Friday.

English uses on with days and dates (on Friday, on 26 January), at with clock times and points (at 3 p.m., at noon), and in with longer periods such as months, years and parts of the day (in May, in the morning).

At Friday and in Friday break that rule. During means throughout or at some point within a period, and is used with events or stretches of time (during the holidays), so I will come during Friday is not idiomatic.

Answer: C

The phrase is by dint of: He succeeded by dint of his hard labour.

By dint of is a fixed prepositional phrase meaning 'by means of' or 'as a result of', almost always followed by effort or persistence: by dint of hard work, by dint of sheer determination. The word dint (force, a blow) survives in modern English only inside this phrase, and the phrase always ends in of.

By dint by, by dint for and by dint at are not English; only of completes the idiom.

Answer: D

The blank takes to: There is an exception to every rule.

The noun exception is followed by to when it names the rule or statement being departed from: an exception to the rule, an exception to the law. The related phrases are with the exception of (except) and take exception to (object to), both of which keep the same preposition pattern.

An exception for every rule and an exception in every rule are common learner errors, and up makes no sense here.

Answer: A

The answer is in: He lives in Church Street. This is the Commission's key and the usual British usage.

In British English a street is treated as an area inside which a person lives, so in is used with the name of a street: in Church Street. At is used with a full street address with a number (at 12 Church Street), and to shows movement towards a place, not where someone lives.

One caution: on is also correct English. American usage prefers on Church Street, and some British speakers use it too, so option D is defensible. The question follows the British convention, which is why A is the keyed answer.

Answer: C

The answer is since: I have eaten nothing since yesterday.

Since marks the point of time from which an action or state continues up to now, and it goes with the present perfect tense (have eaten). Yesterday is such a starting point.

From needs a matching end point (from yesterday till today). Till and until mark the end of a period, so 'nothing till yesterday' would mean the fasting stopped yesterday, which does not fit the present perfect.

Answer: B

The answer is in: The Brahmaputra has its source in the Himalayas.

The fixed phrase is have its source in a place: the source lies within the mountain range. The verb 'rise' would take in as well (the river rises in Tibet).

From would fit 'flows from' or 'comes from', not 'has its source'. Into shows movement towards the inside of something, as in 'flows into the Bay of Bengal'. At is used for a point, such as a town or a spot, not for a whole mountain range.

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.