Prepositions

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PREPOSITIONS
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Between and Among

• Between is used to refer to two persons or things
• E.g. Can you spot the differences between the
  two products?
• Among is used to refer to more than two persons
  or things
• E.g. There is no co-operations among the party
  leaders.

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At as a Preposition of Place

• 1st pattern
• Attheplace within a city or town
• The women are at the supermarket, bus stop, mall,
  restaurant, theatre, university.
• 2nd pattern
• Ataddress
• She lives at 3575 North 52nd Street, apartment 10

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• 3rd Pattern
• Attheplace within another place
• He was waiting in the room at the door
• He likes to sit in his apartment at the windows
  facing the park.
• ..at the counter, desk, table
• At indicates a place of attendance
• 1st Pattern
• Beatplace or meal of regular attendance
• The children are at school

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• We aren't allowed to watch television when we are
  at dinner.
• at church, class, home, practice, breakfast,
  lunch, dinner
• 2nd Pattern
• Beatnoun of event
• They are at the movies
• .at a concert, celebration, party, wedding,
  reunion, game, lecture, function.

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Between and And

• When indicating time period, in terms of hours,
  days, years or centuries, we tend to use between
  and to. This is incorrect, between and and is
  the correct usage.
• Incorrect The meeting will take place between 2
  to 5 p.m
• Correct The meeting will take place between 2
  and 5 p.m
• Incorrect The interviews will be held between
  15th September to 30th September.
• Correct The interviews will be held between 15th
  September and 30th September.

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Omission of Prepositions

• We tend to leave out prepositions where they are
  necessary, and as a result, the sentence becomes
  incorrect and meaningless. In the examples, the
  words in brackets are often omitted, which they
  shouldnt be.
• E.g. I disposed (of) my old furniture.
• We have two hands to work (with).
• He asked me (for) a favor.
• I objected (to) his smoking in the room

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Unnecessary Use of Prepositions

• It is also wrong to use a preposition when it is
  unnecessary. The prepositions highlighted in bold
  are redundant and should be avoided.
• Eg I ordered for ten copies of the book
• He violated against the law of the state.
• The committee investigated into the politicians
  assassination.
• The CEO entered into the boardroom
• Please sign on this bond.
• Can you explain about how the blog is written?

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Ending sentences with prepositions

• To avoid awkward sentence structure, we should
  avoid ending sentences with prepositions
• Acceptable This is the table Im planning to
  put the laptop on
• Better This is the table on which Im planning
  to put the laptop
• Acceptable We received everything we asked for.
• Better We received everything we requested.
• Acceptable Whom should I give the parcel to?
• Better To whom should I give the parcel?

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• But in these instances, the use of prepositions
  is mandatory for the sentence to make complete
  sense, and be grammatically correct. (These
  sentences also do not sound awkward)
• Eg The watchman seemed to know what the sign
  stood for.
• The customer invariably gets what he pays for.

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Bibliography

• Correct Your Common Errors in English, Jayanthi
  Dakshina Murthy, Upkar Prakashan
• The Most Common Mistakes in English Usage, Thomas
  Elliott Berry, Mc-Graw Hill
• The Ins and Outs of Prepositions, Jean Yates

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