English Prepositions: Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Prepositions are small words that cause enormous problems. In, on, at, for, with, by, about — they look harmless. But they are responsible for some of the most persistent errors adult learners make, and they can quietly undermine otherwise excellent English. A single wrong preposition in a formal email or an IELTS writing task can signal to a native speaker that something is off, even if they can’t immediately say what.

The frustrating truth is that prepositions are largely arbitrary. There is often no deep logical reason why we say interested in but keen on, or why you arrive at the airport but in the city. Native speakers know these combinations through years of exposure. Learners have to build that exposure deliberately.

This lesson focuses on one specific and very common category of prepositional error: wrong prepositions after adjectives and verbs. Get this right and your English will feel noticeably more natural overnight.

The Lesson: Dependent Prepositions

Many adjectives and verbs in English come with a fixed preposition attached. These are called dependent prepositions or prepositional collocations. The preposition doesn’t change based on logic or mood — it’s just part of the phrase, and you need to learn it as a unit.

Here are some of the most important ones for professional and academic contexts:

• interested in (not interested about or interested for)
• responsible for (not responsible of)
• depend on (not depend of)
• agree with a person / agree on a topic (yes, this one changes — we’ll come back to it)
• worried about (not worried for)
• consist of (not consist in or consist from)
• apologise for (not apologise about)
• apply for a job / apply to a company

Notice that some verbs require different prepositions depending on what follows. Agree with goes with a person: I agree with the manager. But agree on goes with a plan or decision: We agreed on the new deadline. This is normal. English prepositions are context-sensitive, and the best way to handle them is to learn phrases, not isolated words.

In a professional setting, these errors come up constantly. Consider this sentence from a real learner’s email:

“I am writing to apologise about the delay and to inform you that we are responsible of the error.”

Both prepositions are wrong. The correct version: apologise for the delay and responsible for the error. Two small fixes, but the difference in register is significant. In an IELTS Writing Task 2 essay, the same mistakes would cost you marks under Grammatical Range and Accuracy.

Practising these as fixed chunks is exactly the kind of focused work we do in daily coaching sessions. If you want that kind of structured feedback on your own writing, take a look at the daily coaching subscription.

The Most Common Mistake (and the Fix)

The single most frequent error with dependent prepositions? Translating directly from your first language.

In many languages, the equivalent of interested is followed by a preposition that looks more like about or for. So learners write interested about because that’s what their brain reaches for. The same happens with worried for (instead of worried about) and depend of (instead of depend on).

The fix is not to think harder — it’s to stop translating at the level of individual words and start learning English phrases as complete units. When you learn the adjective responsible, don’t just write responsible in your notebook. Write responsible for (something) and add an example sentence: She is responsible for client communications. That’s the unit. That’s what goes in your memory.

Here’s a quick reference for some high-frequency phrases that are commonly confused:

• Wrong: We need to discuss about the budget. / Right: We need to discuss the budget. (No preposition at all!)
• Wrong: She is married with a doctor. / Right: She is married to a doctor.
• Wrong: He’s very good in presentations. / Right: He’s very good at presentations.
• Wrong: I’m looking forward to meet you. / Right: I’m looking forward to meeting you. (After to as a preposition, use the -ing form.)

That last one trips up even strong learners. Look forward to feels like an infinitive structure, but the to here is a preposition, not part of an infinitive. So it needs a noun or gerund after it, not a base verb.

Three Practice Tips You Can Use Today

1. Audit one email you’ve written recently. Underline every preposition. For each one after an adjective or verb, ask yourself: is this a dependent preposition, and do I actually know what the correct one is? Look it up if you’re not sure. One email is enough — don’t try to review everything at once.
2. Learn five new collocations this week, not five new words. Pick five adjectives or verbs you already know and find their dependent prepositions. Use a good learner’s dictionary (Cambridge or Longman are reliable) and write each one in a sentence that reflects your own work or studies.
3. Read your sentences aloud. This sounds too simple to matter, but it works. When you read a correct phrase aloud repeatedly — responsible for, interested in, apologise for — you start to internalise the sound of it. Wrong prepositions begin to feel wrong in your mouth, not just on the page. That’s the instinct you’re building.

Vocabulary to Know

• dependent preposition /dɪˈpendənt ˌprepəˈzɪʃən/ – Level: B2 – a preposition that is fixed to a particular verb or adjective and cannot be changed – Example: In the phrase “interested in”, “in” is a dependent preposition.
• collocation /ˌkɒləˈkeɪʃən/ – Level: B2 – a combination of words that frequently appear together and sound natural to native speakers – Example: “Make a decision” is a common collocation; “do a decision” is not.
• gerund /ˈdʒerənd/ – Level: B2 – the -ing form of a verb used as a noun – Example: “Swimming” is a gerund in the sentence “I enjoy swimming.”
• register /ˈredʒɪstə/ – Level: B2 – the level of formality in language, adjusted depending on context and audience – Example: Business emails require a more formal register than text messages.
• internalise /ɪnˈtɜːnəlaɪz/ – Level: C1 – to absorb knowledge or a habit so deeply that it becomes automatic – Example: After months of practice, she had internalised the rules of formal writing.
• arbitrary /ˈɑːbɪtrəri/ – Level: C1 – based on random choice or personal whim rather than any system or logic – Example: The rules for which preposition to use can seem arbitrary to learners.
• undermine /ˌʌndəˈmaɪn/ – Level: C1 – to weaken or damage something gradually, often without it being immediately obvious – Example: Small grammar errors can undermine an otherwise confident presentation.
• chunk /tʃʌŋk/ – Level: B1 – in language learning, a fixed phrase or group of words learned and used as a single unit – Example: Learning “as a result” as a chunk is more efficient than learning each word separately.
• persistent /pəˈsɪstənt/ – Level: B2 – continuing for a long time, especially when it is difficult to stop or change – Example: Prepositional errors are often persistent even at advanced levels.
• infinitive /ɪnˈfɪnɪtɪv/ – Level: B1 – the base form of a verb, usually preceded by “to” in English – Example: “To write” is an infinitive; it follows “I want” but not “I look forward to”.

FAQ

Is there any logic to which preposition follows which adjective or verb?

Sometimes, yes. Prepositions of place can follow a certain logic: you arrive in a large area (a city, a country) and at a specific point (a station, an office). But for dependent prepositions after adjectives and verbs, honest answer: not much. The patterns exist, but they’re not reliable enough to replace simply learning the phrases. Save yourself the effort of hunting for rules that have too many exceptions.

Does getting prepositions wrong really affect my IELTS score?

Yes, directly. In Writing, incorrect prepositions affect your Grammatical Range and Accuracy score. In Speaking, they affect Grammatical Range and Accuracy too, and if they’re frequent, they also drag down your Fluency and Coherence score because the examiner is working harder to follow you. Occasional slips are normal and expected. Consistent, repeated errors with high-frequency phrases are what cost you marks.

How long does it take to stop making these mistakes?

It depends entirely on how deliberately you practise. Passive reading helps slowly. Active study — writing new collocations in sentences, reading them aloud, getting feedback on real writing — speeds things up considerably. Most learners who work consistently on this see a clear improvement in four to six weeks. The phrases become familiar, and then they become automatic.

Getting feedback on your actual writing is the fastest way to catch and correct the preposition habits you’ve already built. That’s exactly what the daily coaching subscription is designed for — real corrections on real English, every day.