Why Prepositions Are Difficult

Prepositions in English are largely idiomatic — their use must often be memorised rather than derived from a rule. Errors like “depends of” (should be “depends on”) reduce your vocabulary score in PTE essays and IELTS writing.

Prepositions of Time

Preposition	Use	Example
at	Specific time; holidays	at 9 am, at Christmas
on	Days; dates	on Monday, on 5 May
in	Months; years; centuries; parts of day	in 2024, in the morning
by	Deadline (not later than)	Submit by Friday.
until/till	Continuing up to a point	She studied until midnight.

Essential Verb + Preposition Collocations

Collocation	Collocation
account for	result in
benefit from	rely on
consist of	respond to
contribute to	suffer from
depend on	participate in
differ from	interfere with

Common Adjective + Preposition Collocations

• aware of, responsible for, capable of
• interested in, concerned about, enthusiastic about
• similar to, different from, related to
• associated with, committed to, based on

Quick Corrections

• ❌ “the reason of this problem” → ✓ “the reason for this problem”
• ❌ “discuss about the issue” → ✓ “discuss the issue” (no preposition)
• ❌ “married with her” → ✓ “married to her”