If you go through a quick online preposition check of a raw text, you will find numerous mistakes related to the incorrect use of prepositions. This happens more frequently in the writings of those people who use English as the second language ESL. If you analyze those mistakes, you will find a pattern of repetitive mistakes for certain misuses of prepositions.
In this article, we are going to discuss the examples of common mistakes and how to use prepositions in English grammar correctly by using different rules and online preposition help through automated tools.
Top 10 Preposition Related Errors Commonly Committed by Writers
Incorrect use of prepositions constitutes a major share of overall grammatical mistakes in the English language. The incorrect use of in, to, on, of, from, and others are a few very common types of preposition mistakes. More often than not, the grammar check for prepositions at the end of a sentence also results in the incorrect use of prepositions.
Let’s find the preposition errors that are very common in different types of texts. The majority of the examples to check on preposition use will be covered in the following section:
- Incorrect use of ‘of’ over ‘on’ – This is one of the most common mistakes extensively committed while writing texts.
- Incorrect use of ‘in’ over ‘at’ – In many similar types of conditions ‘in’ is used but in a few tricky conditions, the use of ‘in’ is not correct.
- Incorrect use of ‘of’ over ‘from’ – This is another important domain of incorrect use of ‘of’ when the correct use is ‘from’.
- Incorrect use of ‘at’ over ‘from’ – In certain cases, the use of at looks very matching in the sentence but that is not correct. Using ‘from’ is the right option.
- Incorrect use of ‘on + next’ phrase – This is another very common incorrect use of the prepositional phrase for describing the preposition of time.
- Incorrect use of ‘in + last’ phrase – This is another tricky use of the prepositional phrase that results in a common mistake.
- Incorrect use of ‘depend + of’ – It has been observed that many ESL people make this mistake very frequently.
- Incorrect use of ‘about’ – The incorrect use of about over many other prepositions like of, over, and others is very common, especially in foreign writers.
- Incorrect use of “of” in ‘Lack of” combination – This is another confusing error for the foreign learners (ESL) to differentiate between ‘lack of’ and simple lack as a verb. Example in the next section.
- Incorrect use of extra “in” before the gerund verb – This is also a very tricky mistake that most of the learners fail to catch because they find it difficult when not to use prepositions.
Normally, identifying prepositional phrase in a sentence manually is very difficult because it requires full command and fluency over the English language. You can verify this by analyzing the following examples of incorrect use of prepositions.
7 Real Examples of Improper Usage of Prepositions
Let’s find the prepositional phrase that is used incorrectly in the following top 7 examples of real-world use:
Incorrect: Tomorrow’s rally depends of the weather conditions.
Correct: Tomorrow’s rally depends on the weather conditions.
Incorrect: I sleep in the morning, wake up in the evening and work in the night.
Correct: I sleep in the morning, wake up in the evening, and work at night.
Note: Find the preposition in this sentence, the IN goes before morning and evening but “AT” is correct for the night.
Incorrect: She can marry to John because she is divorced with her former husband now.
Correct: She can marry John because she is divorced from her former husband now.
Incorrect: He graduated at university last year.
Incorrect: Business plan failed due to lack of cohesion, so sorry to see the team lacking of organization badly!
Correct: Business plan failed due to lack of cohesion, so sorry to see the team lacking organization badly!
Incorrect: He spends a lot of time on playing soccer.
Correct: He spends a lot of time playing soccer.
Incorrect: I am considering about hiring a manager for my company.
Correct: I am considering hiring a manager for my company.
Major Rules to Fix the Incorrect Use of Prepositions
There are certain rules for using prepositions correctly. Those rules can also be used to fix the incorrect use of prepositions in any piece of text. A few very important rules are listed below:
- Make sure preposition goes before the noun and pronoun acting as an object
- The pairing of the preposition with noun and verb is done correctly
- Never use a verb as an object of the preposition
- Don’t use a preposition at the end of any sentence
- Avoid missing up ‘into” with “in”
- Make sure ‘than’ is not used after different. Use ‘from’ after different in any sentence
- Make sure the additional use of prepositions is not done
What Can Help You Improve Your Preposition Mistakes Effectively?
The improvement in the correct use of prepositions can be achieved either by following a longer learning curve under the supervision of expert linguists or use some automated online techniques such as an online preposition checker tool. The most effective, consistent, and low-priced way to improve preposition use is using online tools.
The online preposition checker tools offer instant correction and learning suggestions to enhance your writing skills and improve preposition mistakes for free of charge. You can also avail of the advanced features at very reasonable prices to get help to improve your writing skills significantly.
What Are Additional Benefits of Using Preposition Identifiers?
An online preposition phrase identifier tool is a comprehensive grammar checking solution that covers numerous features, which offer many benefits to the users. A few of them are listed here:
- Grammar learning guidelines against your mistakes in the text
- Preposition mistakes, as well as other grammatical mistakes, are corrected automatically
- The spelling checking of your text is also an additional benefit of using preposition finder
- Preposition finder tool also offers plagiarism check to make your content unique
- The correction of punctuation in writing is also done by online tools
What About Reliability and Easiness of Using Online Tools?
The results of online tools are very reliable because the tools are designed and developed based on expert-level feedback from the linguists and grammatists. The most professional dictionaries, phrases, idioms, proverbs, and grammatical rules are used for developing those online tools. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in those tools makes them grow consistently and reliably.
Online preposition finder tools are so easy and simple to use instantly. The interfaces are very intuitive, which offers you an instant understanding of how to use the tool effectively.