Dealing with prepositions

People often think that prepositions are just describing placement. However, their use is a bit more complex. When working on a question on prepositions, you should consider what the missing preposition is linking. For prepositions of time, place and movement, there are some rules that you can observe, and we will look at two examples below.

Look at the following example:

1. We are heading ________ Kansas City.

                  a) of

                  b) along

                  c) towards

                  d) underneath

The correct answer is c) towards. The verb “to head” indicates moving in a particular direction. “towards” means “in a direction of”, so “towards” is the most appropriate preposition for “head”.

Sometimes, certain words are used in a combination which we call word collocation. In the following example, you need to know which preposition collocates with “of”.

Look at the next example:

2. The company welcomes all new applicants ________ of educational level.

                  a) concerning

                  b) despite

                  c) except

                  d) regardless

You see here that the missing word is followed by “of”, and the only word collocating (matching) with “of” is d) regardless. The preposition “regardless of” means paying no attention to something. The other three choices are never followed by “of”.