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English prepositions make some very familiar phrases with certain partner words
TYPES OF PREPOSITION PHRASE
Prepositions partner a following noun or equivalent, the combination often being called a preposition phrase (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #1). In many preposition phrases, the preposition can vary to express different preposition meanings. It might, for example, mark the following noun as the cause of an action (by), or an “instrument” (with), or a location (in), or an origin (from).
Other preposition choices, however, vary less. In some cases, the noun does not logically allow many preposition possibilities, or naturally requires one or a few much more than others. Take, for example, the noun a map. If we talk about maps, we are more likely to be discussing their content than other preposition-inducing ideas like their position in space or time. As a result, the preposition for linking map content with the noun map, which happens to be on, is very much a “typical” preposition with that noun (see 111. Words with a Typical Preposition).
In the most extreme cases, a particular noun will always or nearly always have the same preceding preposition. In the phrase on the whole, for example, on cannot be replaced by any other preposition. This is what I mean by a “fixed” preposition phrase. Its fixedness places it within the class of “idioms”, which themselves illustrate the wider idea of “collocations”, or word partnerships.
This post surveys the wide variety of fixed preposition phrases that can appear in formal English writing. There is more on collocation in numerous other Guinlist posts, notably 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words (#5), 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”, 194. Adverbs that Say How Much, 209. Fixed Phrases with “and” and 273. Verb-Object-Collocations.
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LIST OF PHRASES
The following list is not exhaustive. It concentrates on phrases beginning with the most common prepositions, and completely excludes phrases with a multi-word preposition, such as next to nothing (see 221. Multi-Word Prepositions). Even the included prepositions probably make fixed phrases that are not mentioned.
There is also some subjectivity about the fixedness of the phrases: some might disagree. However, it is knowing the phrases rather than their fixedness that is ultimately what matters. For some less-fixed similar phrases, see 85. Preposition Phrases and Corresponding Adverbs.
ABOVE
above all (else/others), above ground, above oneself, above the law, above suspicion
AFTER
after all, after a while, after a/some time, after dark, after that, after the event
AS
as a consequence, as a preliminary (to…), as a reminder, as a result, as a reward, as a rule, as a whole, as compensation, as usual
AT
at a guess, at all, at all costs, at a loss, at any rate, at arm’s length, at a standstill, at a time, at bay, at best, at ease, at every opportunity, at every turn, at fault, at first, at first hand, at first sight, at full stretch, at hand, at …’s insistence, at intervals, at large, at last, at least, at length, at odds, at once, at peace, at present, at random, at rest, at risk, at speed, at that, at the beginning/ start/ end, at the end of the day, at the first attempt, at the/this moment, at (the) most, at the outset, at the same time, at the time, at times, at will, at worst
BEYOND
beyond assistance, beyond belief, beyond compare, beyond comparison, beyond dispute, beyond doubt, beyond expectation(s), beyond help. beyond hope, beyond recall, beyond recognition, beyond reproach, beyond the call of duty, beyond one’s wildest dreams
BY
by accident, by all accounts/reports, by all/no means, by analogy, by arrangement, by a wide/narrow margin, by birth, by candlelight, by chance, by coincidence, by common consent, by comparison, by contrast, by custom, by day, by default, by definition, by degrees, by design, by every means, by extension, by far, by force, by implication, by law, by mistake, by name, by (their) nature, by night, by no means, by now, by profession, by reference to …, by reputation, by repute, by return, by rights, by -self, by the same token, by the way, by way of …, by word of mouth
FOR
for a change, for ages, for all …’s worth, for a moment, for a (…) reason, for a start, for a time, for a while, for certain, for convenience, for emphasis, for good, for good measure, for good reason, for life, for now, for once in a while, for sure, for the moment, for the most part, for the record, for the time being, for this purpose, for weeks, for what it is worth
FROM
from a … perspective, from all the evidence, from day one, from day to day, from every angle, from memory, from side to side, from the first, from the horse’s mouth, from the start, from time to time, from top to bottom
IN
in a … capacity, in addition, in advance, in all, in all likelihood, in all probability, in all sincerity, in a mess, in anger, in answer, in a quandary, in a rage, in a sense, in a … way, in brief, in charge, in circulation, in command, in common parlance, in conclusion, in consequence, in contrast, in control, in danger, in days gone by, in denial, in depth, in difficulty, in disgrace, in dispute, in doubt, in droves, in due course, in effect, in error, in essence, in fairness, in favour, in fits and starts, in full, in full flow, in general, in hand, in large numbers, in line, in no time, in one go, in order, in other words, in parallel, in particular, in position, in practice, in principle, in profusion, in progress, in public, in question, in reality, in reply, in response, in sequence, in short supply, in sum(mary), in tandem, in tatters, in … terms, in that case, in the black, in the clear, in the dark, in the end, in the extreme, in the eyes of …, in the final analysis, in (the) first place, in the fullness of time, in the long run/term, in the main, in the meantime, in the nick of time, in theory, in the process, in the red, in the way, in this case, in this instance, in this respect, in time, in total, in touch, in transit, in truth, in turn, in unison
OF
of a kind, of … kinds, of all things, of benefit, of concern, of consequence, of course, of good reputation, of importance, of interest, of late, of necessity, of note, of … own accord, of significance, of sorts, of substance, of the same kind/name, of use, of value
OFF
off colour, off duty, off limits, off the beaten track, off the pace, off the record, off the scale, off the top
ON
on a … basis, on a large/small scale, on all sides, on a par, on average, on balance, on his/her/its (etc.) best behaviour, on board, on close inspection, on closer analysis/examination, on condition that …, on end, on fire, on (his/her/its etc.) guard, on high alert, on impulse, on occasion, on paper, on purpose, on reflection, on sale, on … terms, on the alert, on the assumption that…, on the brink, on the contrary, on the evidence of … , on the face of it, on the go, on the increase, on the lookout for…, on the make, on the mend, on the move, on the other hand, on the surface, on the understanding that …, on the whole, on (the) top
OUT OF
out of action, out of all proportion, out of bounds, out of circulation, out of contract, out of control, out of date, out of fashion, out of favour, out of kilter, out of kindness, out of love, out of order, out of phase, out of sorts, out of step, out of the norm, out of the ordinary, out of the question, out of spite, out of time, out of touch
TO
to a degree, to all appearances, to all intents and purposes, to a great/small extent, to great (or the same) effect, to my mind, to no avail, to perfection, to (someone’s) surprise, to the contrary, to the naked eye, to the uninitiated, to this day, to this end
UNDER
under attack, under consideration, under construction, under contract, under control, under inspection, under licence, under no illusions, under oath, under observation, under pressure, under review, under supervision, under surveillance, under the auspices of…, under the circumstances, under the impression that…, under the influence of…, under the ownership of
WITH
with concern, with delight, with difficulty, with dignity, with dismay, with due consideration, with hindsight, with love, with pleasure, with relish, with regard to, with regret, with (due) respect, with respect to, with satisfaction, with surprise, with that in mind
WITHIN
within one’s capacity, within limits, within living memory, within minutes, within range, within (easy) reach, within reason, within sight, within the rules, within touching distance, within view
WITHOUT
without assistance, without delay, without doubt, without end, without exception, without fail, without hesitation, without hindrance, without question, without success
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OBSERVATIONS
1. Grammatical Function
Ordinary preposition phrases (i.e. not “fixed” in the sense described above) tend to have various alternative uses in a sentence. The same phrase may act like an adjective (adding information about a previous noun) or like an adverb (adding information about a verb, adjective, adverb or whole sentence). Consider the like phrase in the following:
(a) An illness like influenza was produced by the virus. (ADJECTIVE USE 1)
(b) The illness produced by the virus was like influenza. (ADJECTIVE USE 2)
(c) The illness acted like influenza. (ADVERB USE 1)
(d) Like influenza, the virus caused a fever. (ADVERB USE 2)
Here, like influenza in (a) and (b) is adjectival because it adds information about a noun (illness). In (a), it occupies one of the two typical positions of adjectival preposition phrases – directly after the noun – while in (b) it occupies the other – later with a link verb (was) in between (see 53. “As”, “Like” and “Such As”).
In (c) and (d), on the other hand, like influenza resembles an adverb because it adds information to the same parts of a sentence that adverbs do. In (c), it adds to the verb acted, while in (d) it adds to the sentence as a whole (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs.
Every adjective and adverb role can be filled by a fixed preposition phrase, but many individual phrases have fewer roles. For example, as a whole, which means “considered altogether”, seems to have only adjective use 1 – directly after a noun (of the “collective” kind), as in Asia as a whole. This is very different from on the whole (= “typically”), which has not only adjective use 1 but also adverb use 2 (see 308. Complexities of “Whole”, last section).
Generally, however, fixed preposition phrases with an exclusively adjective use seem quite rare. Phrases beginning with of tend to be of this kind (see 160. Uses of “of”), though of late and of necessity are adverbial. Fixed out of phrases – excepting those with an emotion noun like spite – are usually adjectival. About 50% of on phrases are so (on end, on the alert, on the brink, on the cards, on the increase). At a loss is adjectival, and at a time (= on each occasion) just has adjective use 1 (usually after a number + noun, e.g. 3 people…). In tatters and in position only have adjective use 2. In order does when meaning “tidy”, but is mostly adverbial when meaning “in sequence”.
Phrases that could be either adjectival or adverbial also tend to be in particular groups. One is phrases with beyond, which are common after a link verb (adjective use 2), but can also be adverb-like if used with particular other verbs, especially PLACE and ACT. Beyond doubt could also start a sentence as a sentence adverb:
(e) Beyond doubt, some professional athletes use illegal drugs.
Similar mixed possibilities exist with above phrases (though above all is only a sentence adverb), many in phrases (notable exceptions being the sentence adverbs in contrast and in time), out of, under and within.
Among phrases with a predominantly adverbial use, in time can be not only sentence-orientated (In time, …) meaning “when some time has passed”, but also verb-orientated meaning “not late” (…arrived in time). Also notable is in the extreme, meaning “very”, which is only found after adjectives.
There are surprisingly many phrases that are typically used as “connectors”, sentence adverbs showing a link with another sentence. Examples are after all, at that, by contrast and in consequence. For a full list, see 259. Multi-Word Connectors.
Many for phrases express a time period – a common adverb meaning. They are indeed mostly used adverbially, especially since some, like for weeks, replace for with lasting in adjective position 1 (see 258. Saying How Long Something Lasts).
Fixed phrases with with tend to be adverbial, perhaps because with is the most typical preposition for converting an adverb into a corresponding preposition phrase (see 85. Preposition Phrases & Corresponding Adverbs). From, on and without also tend to create adverbial phrases, though some, like on end, on fire and without end are usually or sometimes adjectival instead. Finally, as phrases excepting as a whole seem always to be adverbial.
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2. Constituent “Noun” Forms
In most cases, the noun after the preposition lacks the. However, the exceptions have mostly normal explanations, such as other descriptive words following the noun (beyond the call of duty, on the understanding that …), the noun representing something solitary (at the first attempt, out of the norm), the noun replaced by a lone adjective (to the uninitiated, out of the ordinary – see 6. Adjectives with no Noun 1), or the noun referring to a part of the body (to the naked eye – see 89. Using “the” with General Meaning).
The only examples where the does not seem to have a standard explanation involve “nouns” that are normally verbs (on the go, on the make – but not without fail), which are reminiscent of expressions like have a go (see 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE).
Also notable is the fairly frequent breaking of the rule that singular countable nouns need an article (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). This happens, for example, in above ground, at hand, at will, by law (and many other by phrases), for good reason, from side to side, in line, in principle, in question, in total, in turn, on average, on end, on purpose, out of date (and many other out of phrases), within range, within reason and without end. Most seem predominantly adjectival (exceptions are underlined).
Finally, there are some phrases with just an adjective and no noun – surprising given that prepositions normally need a following noun. Some of these adjectives are in the superlative form without the (at best, at last, at least, at worst). Others (the clear, the dark, the black, the red) are base forms with the – a possibility that is much rarer in English than in some other languages (see 102. Adjectives with no Noun 2). Others again are simple base forms (at large, by far, for good, for sure, in full, in general, of late). Also notable is at once, once being an adverb.
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3. “Action” Noun Involvement
Action nouns are made from verbs and express verb-like meanings (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns). Some of the prepositions listed above seem more likely than others to accompany an action noun. Particularly noticeable are beyond (followed by nouns like belief and recognition), under (consideration, review) and without (doubt, hesitation).
Beyond compare is a more poetic alternative to beyond comparison. Compare is probably a noun rather than the verb. Under gives passive meaning to an action noun, but seems usable only with a very few such nouns.
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