Prepositions

If your teacher marks "Prep," determine which error you have made.

 

1. Prep: Hanging prepositions.

2. Prep x: omit unnecessary prepositions.

1. Prep: Hanging prepositions. Avoid ending sentences or clauses on prepositions. They make sentences end weakly. To remember the rule, memorize the sentence "Prepositions are weak words to end sentences on." In correcting the error, do not add a redundant second preposition:

AWKWARD: She is the woman he fell eternally in love with.

REDUNDANT: She is the woman with whom he fell eternally in love with.

RIGHT: She is the woman with whom he fell eternally in love.

 

AWKWARD: The school she graduated from is located in Germany.

REDUNDANT: The school from which she graduated from is located in Germany.

RIGHT: The school from which she graduated is located in Germany.

A preposition that is part of an idiomatic verb phrase (for example, to look up) does not sound as awkward at the end of a sentence; no one says, "Up whose phone number are you looking?" However, with a little imagination a writer can usually find another way to phrase the sentence:

UNNATURAL: I don't know up with how much more I can put.

ACCEPTABLE: I don't know how much more I can put up with.

REPHRASED: I don't know how much more I can stand.

Incomplete infinitives make prepositions hang. Either complete the infinitive or omit it:

AWKWARD: I do what I want to.

RIGHT: I do what I want to do. I do what I want.

Avoid using prepositions as adverbs. Either supply an object or rephrase the sentence:

VAGUE: He went below. CLEAR: He went below the deck.
VAGUE: I came after. CLEAR: I followed him.

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2. Prep x: omit unnecessary prepositions. Avoid redundant expressions like the ones below. The italicized words should be omitted:

beat up

except for

keep on

sit down

calm him down

exchange back

later on

stand up

clean up

fall down

lie down

start off

climb up

fall over

lift up

start out

close up

finish up

meet up with

stir up

come over to

help out

off of

topple down

continue on

hurry up

open up

tumble down

dressed up as

inside of

out of (the door)

up until

escape from

jump up

return back

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