AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE
For example,
     I shall come on Friday at 5 o" clock.                                     PREPOSITION
Between and Among                                             Nouns Followed by Preposition ‘of’
     Between is used about two persons or things, while          Abhorrence of            Assurance of
among is used for referring to more than two persons or
                                                                 Charge of                Distrust of
things.
                                                                 Doubt of                 Experience of
For example,
                                                                 Failure of               Observance of
     Divide the mango between Ram and Sham.
                                                                 Proof of                 Result of
     Distribute all the chocolates among the pupils.
                                                                 Want of
     The money was divided not between his two sons
only but among all his defendants.                            Adjectives Followed by Preposition ‘of’
Beside and Besides                                               Accused of               Acquitted of
     Beside means by the site of while, besides means in         Afraid of                Apprehensive of
addition to.                                                     Apprised of              Assured of
For example,                                                     Aware of                 Bereft of
     Besides my son, my cousin also sat beside me.               Bought of                Cautious of
By and With                                                      Certain of               Characteristic of
     By is used with the doer or agent, while with is used       Composed of              Confident of
before the instrument with which a person does a thing.          Conscious of             Convinced of
For example,                                                     Covetous of              Defrauded of
     The tiger was not shot by me.                               Deprived of              Desirous of
     The tiger was shot with a rifle.                            Devoid of                Diffident of
Except and Excepting                                             Distrustful of           Dull of
     The use of the participle excepting formed from the         Easy of                  Envious of
verb of except (= to exclude) is often confused with that of
                                                                 Fearful of               Fond of
the preposition except (= without).
For example,                                                     Greedy of                Guilty of
     All the boys except John went there                         Heedless of              Ignorant of
     (Preposition = without).                                    Informed of              Innocent of
     All the boys not excepting John went there (Participial     Irrespective of          Lame of
preposition = not excluding).                                    Lavish of                Negligent of
     All the boys went there, John not being excepted            Productive of            Proud of
(verb).                                                          Regardless of            Sanguine of
     There are also a few special prepositions like :            Sensible of              Sick of
(a) Than                                                         Slow of                  Subversive of
     Than is usually a conjunction, but is sometimes used        Sure of                  Suspicious of
as a preposition.                                                Tolerant of              Vain of
For example,                                                     Void of                  Weary of
     I cannot accept less than fifty rupees for this article.    Worthy of                Beware of
     I speak of Keats, than whom there is none greater as     Verbs Followed by Preposition ‘of’
a poet.
                                                                 Acquit of                Beware of
(b) But
                                                                 Boats of                 Complain of
     As a rule but is a conjunction. When used as a prepo-
sition, but means except, with the exception of.                 Despair of               Die of
For example,                                                     Disapprove of            Dispose of
     What can he do but die?                                     Divest of                Dream of
     All our ambitions death defeats, but one.                   Heal of                  Judge of
     None but the brave deserves the award.                      Repent of                Taste of
     She returned all her gifts but one.                      Nouns Followed by Preposition ‘for’
     All is lost but honour.                                     Affection for            Ambition for
(c) A is sometimes used as weakened form of the prepo-           Anxity for               Apology for
sition on.                                                       Appetite for             Aptitude for
For example,                                                     Blame for                Candidate for
     The house is a building.                                    Capacity for             Compassion for
     I meet her once a week.                                     Compensation for         Contempt for
     Rice is twenty rupees a kg.                                 Craving for              Desire for
     His wages are thirty rupees a day.                          Esteem for               Fitness for
                                                          SEE–49