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

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")

Adjective + preposition

• interested in, good at, afraid of, proud of
• responsible for, similar to, different from
• worried about, keen on

She's good at maths and interested in physics.

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.

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.

Try it yourself

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