Prepositions

Prepositions exercises:

A Read the story below:

I was born in Seattle, Washington on the 19th of April in 1961. Seattle is in the State of Washington in the United States. That was many years ago… Now, I live in Leghorn in Italy. I work at the British School. I sometimes go to a movie at the weekend. I meet my friends at the movie theatre at 8 o’clock or later. In the summer, usually in August, I go home to visit my family in America. My family and I go to the beach and relax in the sun in the morning and in the afternoon! In the evening, we often eat at a restaurant with our friends. Sometimes, we go to a bar at night.

 

When do you use these prepositions?

in   on  at to

B Fill in the gaps in this paragraph with the preposition: in, on, at or to.

Janet was born _____Rochester ____December 22nd ____ 3 o’clock ____ the morning. Rochester is _____ the state of New York ___ the United States. Now, she goes ____ classes _____ the university. She usually arrives ___ the morning ___ 8 o’clock.

____ weekends, she likes driving ___ her friend’s house ___ Canada. Her friend lives ___ Toronto. She usually arrives ___9:00 ____ the evening and leaves ___ Sunday morning. ____ Saturday, they often meet friends ___ a restaurant. ___ night, they sometimes go ___ a disco. ___ summer, ____ July for example, they often go ___ the countryside.

 

C Sidney Rimbaud is talking about his job responsibilities but is having problems with his prepositions. Complete the following sentences, where necessary, with a preposition from the list. Some of the sentences do not need an extra word.

 

            after, in, on, out, to (x2), with (x2)

 

1. I head ___________ the marketing department at Kazoulis Communications.
2. I report directly ___________ Mr Kazoulis himself.
3. I look ___________ a department of about 30 people.
4. I deal ___________ all the major aspects of the company’s marketing strategy.
5. I Iiaise ___________ the other members of the management committee.
6. I listen carefully ___________ what our customers say.
7. I handle ___________ one or two of the major accounts myself.
8. I’m working ___________ a very important account at the moment.
9. I also monitor ___________ the general situation in the market place.
10. We carry ___________ market surveys regularly.
11. We test ___________ new products on groups of consumers.
12. I am also involved ___________ one or two of Mr Kazoulis’s takeover projects.  

Prepositions with verbs / adjectives /nouns / time

Rebecca lives in London and works in public relations. She leaves home for work (1)______ 7.30 am. She drives (2) ______ work. The traffic is often bad and she worries about getting (3) ______ work late, but she usually arrives (4) ______ work at around nine. She finishes work quite late, at about eight. ‘Luckily, I’m never ill,’ she says. ‘I could never take the time (5) ______ work.’ She loves what she does and is glad to be (6) ______ work. Some of her friends are not so lucky: they are looking (7)______ work.

 

D. Complete the text with correct prepositions.

With adjectives: interested in responsible for based on involved in satisfied with familiar with convenient for concerned about worried about happy to delighted to aware of dependent on excited about similar to suitable for   With verbs: agree with apologize for apply for smth apply to sby approve of ask sby for belong to coincide with comment on communicate with compare to /with complain to (sby) complain about (smth) comply with concentrate on conflict with congratulate sby on consist of count (= rely) on deal with depend on focus on hear about help with hope to insure smth against listen to look at = observe

look for = search look forward to participate in pay sby for pay for smth provide sby with refer to rely on reply to respond to search for spend smth on supply sby with take care of take part in talk to thank someone for think of = get an idea, have an opinion think about = consider wait for write to   With nouns: advantage of advice on application for benefit of cause of cost of invitation to interest in lack of need for order for price of reason for request for trouble with     With time: at 8:00 in the afternoon on Friday by Friday = deadline in June in 1998

Prepositions exercises: Exercises adapted from Business Grammar Builder. Emmerson

 

A: approve   believe   comply     depend     know     lead     suffer   wait     wait

Task A

Complete the sentences with a word from list A and a word from list B.

 

B: about     for         from     in     of         on     to     with

0 If you want to succeed, you really have to believe in yourself.

1 Finish what you’re doing – I’ll _______________ you outside.

2 What you’re saying can only _______________ one possible conclusion.

3 Of course the size of our order will _______________ the price.

4 Your CV is strong, but what do you _______________ marketing to teenagers?

5 Our export industries always _______________ the effects of a strong euro.

6 I have to look smart at work – my boss doesn’t _______________ informal clothes.

7 Does our customer database _______________ data protection legislation?

 

Task B . Underline the correct word.

 

1 I think we should ask them for / about / with more information.

2 Can you supply us for / about / with enough parts to upgrade 50 machines?

3 You remind me about/of/for someone I used to work with in  Toulouse.

4 If I forget, remind me about/of/for it again tomorrow.

5 They blamed the union against/from/for going on strike unnecessarily.

6 We might have to split the order for/in/into two separate consignments.

7 I’d like to congratulate Patricia on/with/about winning Employee of the Month.

8 This safety feature prevents the operator against/from/with being hurt or injured.

9 This year we’ll be investing more than $4m on/in/to plant and equipment.

10 This year we’ll be spending more than £4m on/in/to plant and equipment.

 

Task C Complete the sentences with prepositions. Choose from: about, at, for, from, in, to, of,  with.

 

0 I’m writing to all our customers about some exciting offers this month on selected models in range.

1 Have you heard anything ______________ Head Office? They said they’d decide this week.

2 Who’s Giuseppe Saponi? I’ve never heard ______________ him.

3 Do you agree ______________ me ______________ this?

4 Unless their quality improves, we’ll have to look ______________ a new supplier.

5 The improved productivity results ______________ all the investment that we made last year.

6. I must apologize ______________ not contacting you earlier, but I’ve been very busy.

7 I complained ______________ the manager ______________ the food and he gave us a free drink.

8 Make sure you look ______________ the small print before you sign anything.

  

Task D Complete the sentences with a word from list A and a word from list B.

 

A: agreed  apologized  apply   involve     listen pay  rely remind     wasted insist

 

B: about   for    for    for    in    on       on   on    to    with

 

0   You can pay for the goods in twelve monthly instalments.

1 I’ve already _______________ an hour this morning _______________ this report.

2 The first thing is to _______________ the client to find out their needs.

3 Everybody _______________ the decision. It was unanimous.

(on and to are possible for #3 but are not the answer)

4 The Chief Operating Officer is leaving next month. I wonder if Chris is going to _______________ his job.

5 We need to _______________ our business partners this discussion.

6 Vanda is very good at working under pressure. You can always _______________ her if there’s an emergency.

7 They _______________ the delay and said that the items are in the mail.

8 I’m certain to forget. Please _________ me __________ it nearer the time.

9 No, no, I _______________ paying. You’re my guest.

E Complete the sequence of emails with the correct prepositions.

 

I’ve just been looking 0 at your website and comparing your online banking facilities 1 _______________ your competitors. I have a few questions. If I want to borrow money 2 _______________ you. How much will you charge me 3_______________ the loan? I assume that as an Internet bank your cheaper operating costs will result _______________ a lower interest rate than a normal bank.   I see that if I open an account this month I qualify 4 _______________ a credit card with special repayment terms. Do you offer insurance 5 _______________ online fraud with this card? I read a lot of stories about hackers and cybercrime.   Thank you.

 

Thank you 1 _______________ your recent email. Here is the information you requested. You can rely 2 _______________ the fact that our interest rates are very competitive, but I cannot give exact figures, as it depends 3. _______________ the amount you want to borrow and changes in line with base rates. I invite you 4 _______________ check the table on our website for the current rates. You can click on the link below   As soon as you inform us 5 _______________ (any possible fraud associated with your card we take care 6 _______________ everything. We investigate the issue and refund any money that you have lost. We have invested heavily 7 _______________ IT security over recent years and we do everything necessary to prevent hackers 8 _______________ entering the system.   I hope this answers your questions. Please do not hesitate to contact us again if you think 9 _______________ anything else