Prepositions and Conjunctions Quiz

 

Prepositions and Conjunctions

Part 1: High-Yield Preposition Concepts

Competitive exams frequently test prepositions through error spotting and sentence completion, focusing heavily on fixed prepositions and transitive verbs.

1. The Omission of Prepositions (Transitive Verbs)

A frequent trap in exams is placing a preposition after a transitive verb in the active voice. Graduates often make this error due to direct translation from their first language.

Verb	Incorrect Usage (Exam Trap)	Correct Usage
Discuss	Discuss about the matter	Discuss the matter
Describe	Describe about the scenery	Describe the scenery
Comprise	Comprise of three parts	Comprise three parts
Investigate	Investigate into the case	Investigate the case
Emphasize	Emphasize on the rules	Emphasize the rules
Order	Order for a cup of coffee	Order a cup of coffee

(Note: "Comprised of" is acceptable only in the passive voice: "The book is comprised of three parts.")

2. Frequently Tested Fixed Prepositions

Certain verbs and adjectives always take specific prepositions. Memorizing these is crucial for the cloze test and fill-in-the-blanks sections.

• Acquainted with (Not to)

• Addicted to + [Gerund/Noun] (e.g., addicted to smoking, not smoke)

• Deprived of (Not from)

• Averse to + [Gerund] (e.g., averse to working late)

• Die of a disease (e.g., died of cancer) vs. Die from a cause (e.g., died from overwork)

• Prefer X to Y (Not prefer over)

Part 2: High-Yield Conjunction Concepts

For conjunctions, competitive exams focus strictly on paired consistency (correlatives), structural parallelism, and inversion rules.

1. Correlative Conjunctions and Parallelism

Conjunctions that come in pairs must connect elements of the exact same grammatical structure (noun to noun, verb to verb, prepositional phrase to prepositional phrase).

• Not only ... but also:

  • Error: He not only speaks English but also Spanish. (Connects verb to noun)

  • Correct: He speaks not only English but also Spanish. (Connects noun to noun)

• Neither ... nor / Either ... or: The verb agrees with the subject closest to it (Rule of Proximity).

  • Correct: Neither the manager nor the employees are attending.

2. Inversion Rules with Conjunctions

When a sentence begins with a negative or restrictive conjunction, the subject and the auxiliary verb must invert (Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb).

Conjunction Pair	Inversion Structure	Example
Hardly / Scarcely ... when	Hardly + had + Subject + V3	Hardly had I reached the station when the train left.
No sooner ... than	No sooner + did + Subject + V1	No sooner did he arrive than the meeting began.

(Exam Trap: Examiners often swap "when" and "than", using "Hardly... than" or "No sooner... when". Watch out for this.)

3. Redundancy and Contextual Traps

• Unless vs. Until: Unless denotes a condition; until denotes time. Both are inherently negative. Rule: Never use "not" in the exact same clause as unless/until.

• Lest ... should: "Lest" means "for fear that" and is always followed by the modal "should". It is also negative, so it never takes a "not".

  • Correct: Walk carefully lest you should fall.

• Because / Since / As: Never pair these with "therefore" or "so" in the same sentence.

• Error: Because he was late, therefore he missed the train.

50 MCQs on Prepositions and Conjunctions 

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