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Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff, Quick Reference: Tricky Prepositions and Confusing Adjectives, A, Advocate, Mar.-Apr. 2016, at 64.
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A Quick Reference: Tricky Prepositions and Confusing Adjectives
Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff
I
’ll admit it: This month’s col-
umn is a little bit for my stu-
dents (and newer law grads). It
The length of these prepositions can help you
seems that about this time each
year my students start to no- remember which to use — the more you know,
tice that they struggle with certain the longer the preposition should be.
prepositions and adjectives.
So as I begin to deal with these
issues in my class, it occurred to me
that it might be helpful to my read-
ers to have the same type of quick
guide. This month we’ll cover the
most common preposition and ad- Into/In to If the request is for an action, use
jective mistakes, and some tips for ask to.
If you’re not sure whether to
remembering their correct usage. choose into or in to, here is a simple She asked to hike on her birthday.
trick. If you can answer the ques- (hike = action)
Tricky prepositions tion, “where?” then use into. Into To remember this difference, re-
shows motion toward a place. member that actions are verbs, and
As anyone who has had to learn
She walked into the ski shop. (Where all verbs have a “to” form.
English as a second language can
tell you, preposition usage is idiom- did she walk?)
atic. There are no rules that govern If you could write in order to, Heard of /Heard about
preposition usage, yet a change then use in to. This is another nuanced pair of
in the preposition can change the She called in to set up ski lessons. (She prepositions. Heard of suggests that
meaning of a sentence. called in order to set up ski lessons.) you were aware of something; heard
Before we get too far into tricky about suggests you know more de-
prepositions, let’s go back to the Think of /Think about tails.
basics for a moment. Prepositions I’ve heard of ski joring. (I understand
This tricky pair is more nuanced.
are “words or phrases that link an this sport exists.)
One choice suggests a specific
object and an antecedent to show choice and the other suggests pon- I’ve heard about a ski joring competi-
the relationship between them”1 dering over something for a while. tion in Wood River. (I’ve learned
While some words can function as
He was thinking of a number between more details.)
both a preposition and another part
one and ten. (specific choice) The length of these prepositions
of speech, prepositions always have
an object. He was thinking about going to law can help you remember which to
school. (pondering) use — the more you know, the lon-
She skied down the hill. (preposition)
Here is my trick to remember ger the preposition should be.
She sat down. (adverb) which is which for this pair: Of is
He kept the rental skis behind the short, like making a quick decision. Confusing adjectives
counter. (preposition) About is longer, like pondering op-
tions. No wonder writers get confused
As he looked behind, he crashed. (ad- with certain adjectives. Many of the
verb) confusing pairs sound similar and
But back to tricky prepositions. Ask for/Ask to
function very similarly, although
Sometimes writers will pick a prep- The difference in this pair comes some have very different meanings.
osition based on how it sounds to from whether the request is for an The correct usage can depend on
her ear or because it sounds “right.” object or an action. If the request understanding the noun in the sen-
Indeed, all language shifts, and was for a noun (the object), then use tence.
prepositions aren’t the exception. ask for. So a bit of basics on nouns:
Here are some of the more common She asked for new snowshoes for her Nouns can be divided into two
tricky prepositions. birthday. (snowshoes = object) groups: mass nouns and count