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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Ilaine who wrote (3431)12/19/1999 3:41:00 PM
From: jbe  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 4711
 
Blue, re prepositions.

You might check some of the sources listed in the Grammar Clubhouse posts, for a discussion of which prepositions go with which verbs/adjectives, etc.

But bear in mind that where verbs are concerned, prepositions are usually really an integral part of the verb. That is, where in a language like Latin, for example, the "preposition" is a prefix (in-, pro-, ex-, etc.), in English it follows; in other words, it is really a detached prefix, rather than an independent preposition. Thus, you have the verbs "look," "look into," "look for," "look around," & etc., all of which have distinct meanings, since they are, in fact, distinct verbs.

Hence some people get confused, because they don't understand why the same verb (e.g., "look") takes so many different prepositions. That is because they are NOT prepositions, as the latter are commonly understood. (Old English had many more prefixes than modern English; they just got detached.)

Joan