BUDLING
All grammar topics
Share

Dependent Prepositions

1 min
B2
CEFR B2·other

Formula

I / You / We / They
depend / rely / believe
on / in
(my parents, the plan)
She / He / It
is
afraid / good / interested
of / at / in
(spiders, tennis, art)
the reason
for
(the delay, this decision)

Examples

Positive
She is interested in photography.
Negative
He is not good at math.
Question
What are you afraid of?

Usage

  • •Verbs that always take one specific preposition — depend on, believe in, apologize for, insist on
  • •Adjectives that pair with a fixed preposition — good at, afraid of, interested in, tired of, married to
  • •Nouns followed by a fixed preposition — reason for, interest in, need for, solution to
  • •Question words that ask about the object of a dependent preposition, with the preposition left at the end — What is she afraid of? Who does it depend on?

More Examples

  • He apologized for being late.

    Verb + preposition (apologize for)

  • I'm afraid of spiders.

    Adjective + preposition (afraid of)

  • She is interested in ancient history.

    Adjective + preposition (interested in)

  • What's the reason for the delay?

    Noun + preposition (reason for)

  • He's good at solving problems quickly.

    Adjective + preposition (good at)

  • Success depends on hard work and luck.

    Verb + preposition (depend on)

Common Mistakes

  • ✗Translating the preposition literally from another language: "married with" instead of "married to", "discuss about" instead of "discuss" (no preposition at all).
  • ✗Dropping the preposition entirely: "I depend my parents." instead of "I depend on my parents."
  • ✗Swapping near-synonym prepositions: "good in" instead of "good at", "interested for" instead of "interested in".
  • ✗Adding a preposition after verbs that take a direct object with none, like "discuss", "marry", "enter".

Tips

  • ✓Learn each verb/adjective/noun together with its preposition as one chunk — "depend on", not "depend" plus "on" separately.
  • ✓Group new items by preposition (on: depend on, insist on, rely on; of: afraid of, tired of, proud of) — patterns are easier to remember than isolated pairs.
  • ✓When unsure, check a learner's dictionary entry — the dependent preposition is usually listed right after the definition, e.g. "interested (in sth)".

Advanced Notes

Dependent prepositions are collocations, not logical choices — native speakers memorize them as fixed pairs rather than reasoning them out, which is why they stay a fossilized error even in advanced learners. The same word can take different prepositions with different meanings — agree with a person, agree on a plan, agree to a proposal — and prepositions rarely translate directly between languages. The preposition is never dropped or moved in everyday speech, even in questions ("What is she interested in?"), though a fronted form ("In what is she interested?") survives only in very formal, mostly written register.

Quiz loads as you scroll…