In a recent video (and blog) I talked about 3 areas of grammar to study to strengthen your sentence structure more quickly. This will improve your speaking, fluency, and reduce hesitation and pausing.
One of the key areas was 'Prepositions'. This is a grammar area many students have trouble with. With-in the area of Prepositions, I identified 3 areas students should focus on. These are:
Prepositions of Time
Prepositions of Location
Adjectives + Prepositions
The first 2 areas are relatively easy to learn because they have clear rules. Learn the rules, do a little practice and you can master them. The 3rd area (Adjectives + Prepositions) causes students a lot of problems. It is very common for students of ALL levels to make mistakes in this area, so don't feel embarrassed or discouraged about it.
There are no rules for learning adjectives + prepositions. The best way to learn it is to learn the adjective and its preposition as a set (or collocation). Many adjectives only take 1 preposition so just memorize it. Some adjectives can take 2, 3, or 4 prepositions. In this case, each preposition will have a different usage pattern, so with a little practice you can understand and memorize it.
To help you I have created a list (below) of 50-60 most common adjectives for daily conversation. You can also download the file by clicking the link here on the right.

I hope this helps you to learn this confusing area of prepositions. Please write your examples in the comments section.
Til next time,
Take it easy.
Chris
The Personal English Trainer
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