Chapter 7 — Prepositions and collocations

The essentials in four points:

• The preposition cannot be guessed: it is learned as a collocation — caused by, depend on, consist of, similar to, interested in, object to, named after.
• Despite and during take no of: despite the storm (but in spite of).
• After a preposition, a verb is always in -ing: interested in pursuing…

ITP prepositions cannot be guessed: they collocate. The test never asks for a subtle spatial nuance; it checks a finite list of verb + preposition and adjective + preposition pairs that academic English repeats constantly.

1. Verb + preposition pairs. depend on, consist of, object to, result in/from, contribute to, rely on, refer to, participate in, succeed in.
✘ depends of the quality → ✔ depends on the quality

2. Adjective + preposition pairs. similar to, different from, interested in, responsible for, capable of, famous for, aware of, typical of.
✘ similar with → ✔ similar to · ✘ interested on → ✔ interested in

3. Connectors not to cross-wire. Despite / in spite of + noun phrase (never “despite of”); because of + noun vs because + clause; passive caused by; named after someone.