{"id":8,"date":"2020-11-20T20:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T20:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/bothersome-prepositions\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T02:31:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T02:31:00","slug":"bothersome-prepositions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/language\/bothersome-prepositions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bothersome Prepositions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"asset-img-link\" style=\"display: inline;\" href=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834236afb53ef0263e97953db200b-pi\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-284 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/prepositions-of-place-in-english-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/prepositions-of-place-in-english-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/prepositions-of-place-in-english-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/prepositions-of-place-in-english.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>People are weird with prepositions. Here\u2019s a list of offenses that irk me. Granted, many are idiomatic and likely escape your definition of \u201cmistake,\u201d but why use an idiomatic preposition when a plainly sensical one will do?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cdifferent than\u201d -&gt; \u201cdifferent from\u201d (or \u201cdifferent to\u201d in England)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cbased around\u201d or \u201ccentered around\u201d an idea -&gt; \u201cbased on\u201d or \u201ccentered on\u201d (If one idea is the base or location for another, the other idea and its center are \u201con\u201d it.)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cbased off of\u201d an idea -&gt; \u201cbased on\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cbased out of\u201d a city -&gt; \u201cbased in\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201con this view\u201d -&gt; \u201cin this view\u201d (\u201cOn\u201d is needless philosophical jargon. \u201cOn this argument\u201d can be replaced with \u201cWith this argument.\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cworking from home\u201d -&gt; \u201cworking at home\u201d (I\u2019m ambivalent about this one. \u201cFrom\u201d makes sense for some tasks, like emailing, but not others, like completing a spreadsheet. Completing it from your home to another location?)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cbetween X to Y\u201d, or \u201cbetween X\u2013Y\u201d -&gt; \u201cbetween X and Y\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cspeak to\u201d a topic -&gt; \u201cspeak about\u201d (Speaking \u201cto\u201d something sounds especially silly when you\u2019re speaking to someone. Do you say \u201cspeak to that to him,\u201d or \u201cspeak to him to that\u201d?)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cdo right by\u201d someone -&gt; \u201cdo right for\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cwant for\u201d something, \u201clack for\u201d something -&gt; \u201cwant,\u201d \u201clack\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cask after\u201d someone -&gt; \u201cask about\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cworry over\u201d someone -&gt; \u201cworry about\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cknow from X\u201d -&gt; \u201cknow about X\u201d or \u201cknow Y from X\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cfor all that\u201d -&gt; \u201cdespite all that\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cthat big of a deal\u201d (or any \u201c[adverb] [adjective] of a [noun]\u201d) -&gt; \u201cthat big a deal\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cprove something out\u201d -&gt; \u201cprove something\u201d<\/li>\n<li>waiting \u201con line\u201d -&gt; \u201cin line\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cmarch on\u201d a location (like Washington) -&gt; \u201cmarch in\u201d (If you don\u2019t walk, shop, or drive \u201con\u201d a city, why would you march \u201con\u201d it?)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cfor cheap\u201d -&gt; \u201ccheap\u201d (\u201cCheap\u201d is an adjective and adverb, not a noun. Technically, \u201cfor free\u201d should be \u201cfree,\u201d but \u201cfor free\u201d is a more accepted idiom.)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cpretend like\u201d -&gt; \u201cpretend\u201d (To \u201cpretend\u201d X is to \u201cact like\u201d X, so to \u201cpretend like\u201d X is to \u201cact like like X.\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cvice president of\u201d a department -&gt; \u201cvice president for\u201d a department (If you\u2019re the Vice President of Marketing, who has the title of President of Marketing? Not the company President, who is just President. You&#8217;re not the VP of Marketing; you&#8217;re a VP of the company who is there for marketing, aka the VP for Marketing.)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cas told to\u201d -&gt; \u201cas told by\u201d or (better) \u201cas retold by\u201d (\u201cAs told to\u201d makes sense if it\u2019s a verbatim transcription, but in that case, does a mere transcriber really deserve a byline?)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cin\u201d a magazine (referring to a web article) -&gt; \u201cfor\u201d a magazine or its website (If you wrote an article for, say, newyorker.com, don\u2019t say it was published \u201cin The New Yorker.\u201d Articles are \u201con\u201d websites, not \u201cin\u201d them.)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cfrom\u201d x to y, a range of sources -&gt; \u201cfrom from,\u201d or \u201cfrom places ranging from\u201d (Let\u2019s start with this question: Does it seem like there\u2019s a word or two missing from this sentence: \u201cI\u2019ve held jobs fry cook to head chef.\u201d Yes, it\u2019s missing \u201cranging from\u201d or just \u201cfrom\u201d after \u201cjobs.\u201d Now how about this: \u201cI\u2019ve ordered food from McDonald\u2019s to Momofuku.\u201d Here the missing \u201cfrom\u201d in the chunk of sentence describing the range of restaurants is not so obvious, because there\u2019s a \u201cfrom\u201d in \u201cI\u2019ve ordered food from.\u201d So it\u2019s a common type of mistake. Adding the necessary \u201cfrom\u201d even makes the sentence sound funny: \u201cI\u2019ve ordered food from from McDonald\u2019s to Momofuku.\u201d One solution: \u201cI\u2019ve ordered food from places ranging from McDonald\u2019s to Momofuku.\u201d Unless of course you are sitting at Momofuku and ordering food from McDonald\u2019s, in which case stick with \u201cfood from McDonald\u2019s to Momofuku,\u201d and please vacate the establishment immediately.)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cepicenter\u201d of an outbreak -&gt; \u201ccenter\u201d of an outbreak (\u201cepi\u201d is a prefix meaning \u201cabove\u201d or \u201cupon,\u201d both prepositions. \u201cEpicenter\u201d describes the surface point above the center of an earthquake, which is underground. When taken literally, describing a city as a disease outbreak\u2019s \u201cepicenter\u201d is incorrect; the city is actually the outbreak\u2019s center, not a point above the center. When taken figuratively, as an earthquake metaphor, it\u2019s clich\u00e9. Try \u201ccenter.\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bonus: Conjunctions<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201ctry and\u201d -&gt; \u201ctry to\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cif\u201d -&gt; \u201ceven though\u201d or \u201cwhile\u201d (In cases such as: \u201cIf Alice is happy about the situation, Bob is miserable,\u201d where Bob\u2019s feelings don\u2019t depend on Alice\u2019s. Sure, the dictionary says \u201cif\u201d can mean \u201ceven though,\u201d but why not keep it clean and reserve \u201cif\u201d for conditionals to avoid any potential confusion?)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cthe reason is because\u201d -&gt; \u201cthe reason is that\u201d (If A causes B, then the reason for B is A. The reason isn\u2019t something that\u2019s because of A; it actually is A. If B goes on to cause C, then you can say the reason for C is because of A, since the reason for C (B) is because of A.) Related: \u201chence why\u201d -&gt;\u00a0\u201chence\u201d (\u201chence\u201d already means \u201cthis is why.\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People are weird with prepositions. Here\u2019s a list of offenses that irk me. Granted, many are idiomatic and likely escape your definition of \u201cmistake,\u201d but why use an idiomatic preposition when a plainly sensical one will do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language","category-peeves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silverjacket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}