I have students with dialects that use non-Standard prepositions.

"He was to the store yesterday afternoon with his brother."

I wonder if those students have trouble with prepositions in standard even
if they are the same in the native dialect because they know SOME of the
prepositions are different. Do they possible over correct?

The other possibility is that in longer sentences students lose track of the
original verb that goes with the preposition and they just put in the wrong
one. Some of my students don't proof reading very well or at all. I put in
the wrong word in my rough drafts too. Not because I think it's right, but
because I goofed, my mind wandered, whatever.

"Hamlet doesn't seem phased [sic] at all from having killed Polonius."

The above example doesn't seem to be a long sentence, but the preposition is
separated from the verb by "at all." Maybe that prevents the writer from
noticing the error.

--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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----Original Message Follows----
From: "PAUL E. DONIGER" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar

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