Prepositions That Trip Learners Up

Prepositions rarely map between languages, so translating them directly produces errors that survive for years. These are the ones worth fixing first.

Verb + preposition

These pairings are fixed. There is no logic — learn them as units.

Correct	Common error
depend on	depend of
listen to	listen to nothing
wait for	wait for nothing
arrive at (a place) / in (a city)	arrive to
look for (search)	search for nothing
ask for (request)	ask for nothing
belong to	belong of
apologise for	apologise about
succeed in	succeed to
complain about	complain on
consist of	consist from
pay for	pay for nothing

Notice the verbs that take no preposition in English, though they do in many languages:

• ✅ I'll phone you. (not "phone to you")
• ✅ Let's discuss the budget. (not "discuss about")
• ✅ She entered the room. (not "entered in")
• ✅ I married him. (not "married with")
• ✅ It affects the result. (not "affects on")

Adjective + preposition

• interested in, good at, afraid of, proud of
• responsible for, similar to, different from
• worried about, keen on, aware of, capable of
• married to, famous for, dependent on

She's good at maths and interested in physics.

Noun + preposition

Nouns carry their own fixed prepositions, and these show up constantly in writing.

Noun	Preposition	Example
reason	for	the reason for the delay
solution	to	a solution to the problem
increase / decrease	in	an increase in prices
effect / impact	on	the effect on sales
difference	between	the difference between them
interest	in	an interest in history
advantage	of	the advantage of waiting

Time: in, on, at

Preposition	Use for	Example
at	clock times, night	at 6pm, at night
on	days and dates	on Monday, on 5 May
in	months, years, longer periods	in July, in 2026, in the morning

Exception worth memorising: at night, but in the morning / afternoon / evening.

The pairs that get confused

• for + a length of time / during + an event: for two hours · during the meeting
• by = not later than / until = up to that moment: Finish it by Friday (deadline) · Wait until Friday (the whole time)
• since + a starting point / from … to for a span: since 2016 · from nine to five
• in + a future period: I'll be back in ten minutes. (not "after ten minutes")

Place: in, on, at

• in — inside something: in the box, in London
• on — a surface: on the table, on the wall
• at — a point or an event: at the bus stop, at the meeting

I'll meet you at the station, on platform 3, in the waiting room.

Movement vs position

Movement usually needs to, into or onto; position uses in, at or on.

• I went to the office. / I was at the office.
• She walked into the room. / She was in the room.

Two verbs break this: arrive takes at/in, never to, and get takes to — I arrived at the airport · I got to the airport.

Transport

by for the mode, on / in for the specific vehicle:

• by car, by train, by bus, by plane — but on the train, in the car, and on foot (never "by foot").

These are vocabulary, not grammar. No rule generates depend on or a solution to; the preposition is part of the word. Learn the whole chunk — reason for, not reason — and the errors stop appearing.

Prepositions in one short exchange

A: What time do you arrive in London?

B: At half past six, if the train's on time. I'll wait for you at the barrier.

A: I might be late — it depends on the traffic.

B: No problem. I'll be there until seven anyway.

Arrive in a city, at a clock time, wait for a person, depend on something, until the whole span — five different pairings in four lines.

Try it yourself

The quiz below targets the pairings that most often come from direct translation.