Friday, December 7, 2012

Verbs & Prepositions (to & at)

As prepositions seem to be a problem area for most people, I thought I´d start off with verbs and prepositions.  How do you know which preposition goes with which verb?  Unfortunately, the only way is to study them and practise, practise, practise!  So, let´s begin with the prepositions to and at.

sb = somebody
sth = something

aim (sth) at: The hunter aimed his gun at the wild boar.
apologise to (sb): We apologised to my sister.
describe to (sb) how / why / where....I described to the police what I had seen.
explain (sth) to (sb): I explained the word to him.
explain to (sb) how / why / where.....She explained to me why she was late.
glance at: I glanced at the number on the ticket.
laugh at: She couldn´t stop laughing at the joke.
listen to: She enjoys listening to music
look at: She´s looking at the painting.
point (sth) at: Sara pointed her finger at the boy.
shout at (sb): The woman angrily shouted at her children.
shout to (sb): I saw my friend across the street and shouted to her.
speak to: I need to speak to you.
stare at: Marc kept staring at her.
talk to: I talked to him.
throw (sth) at (sb/sth): The naughty child threw a toy at his friend.
throw (sth) to (sb): The children were having fun as they threw the ball to each other.
write (sth) to: I wrote a letter to her.

We do NOT use prepositions with these verbs;
phone (sb)
call (sb)
telephone (sb)
answer (sb/sth)
ask (sb)

If you have any questions or doubts, please feel free to comment.

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