Verbs and prepositions have always been linked together in the construction of a simple sentence. I hence call them this way: verbs and prepositions are the husband and wife, for there cannot be a shining house without a couple. (That’s my own quote ). Each verb has only a set or one compatible preposition(s); ideally each verb is associated with a preposition, but there are also some cases where a verb might dwell with more than one preposition.

This is the first edition that I brought forward in this series of “Phrases With Prepositions” and I will start with the alphabet A and upto Z. But trust me this is a whole lot of them and yet they are very crucial in helping you write better and confidently. I will show you what verb goes with what preposition(s) and also forming a sentence or phrase with them. It should definitely be a good collection in your database of “Learn Good Writing Skills by starting with the Basics of the English Language“. So here we go…

5 Verbs And Prepositions With A Sentence

1) Abondon to

Having no other choice, the King abandoned his ministers to the fury of the of the mob.

2) Abide by

As a honest student, you should always abide by the rules and regulations of your institution.

3) Able to

Having gone bankrupt, the manager is not able to pay his employees right now.

NOTE:
Ideally, we do not say “is not able to”, instead we say “is unable to” - This is much better english. But for the sake of the subject of this article, I have used “is not able”

4) Absorb in

Tom Sawyer was so absorbed in his day dreams that he completely forgot about Mr Dobbins’ class.

5) Abhorrence of (abhorrence means ’strong dislike’ or ‘disgust’)

Most sentient women have an abhorrence of lizards

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That’s it for this edition. I have tried to make the sentences simple so that you can concentrate more on how the marriage of certain verb with its specific preposition goes. For example, we cannot say “able for“, that’s not good english (just like an eagle is not an appropriate pair for a hen - Got it?!). Hopefully, as you keep on reading editions after editions, you will surely get a better grasp of things. So don’t forget to subscribe freely and come back often. And please do use the comment form to give me your feedback and other possible sentences or associations.

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I was reading an article where my blogo-friend, Jirel, was talking about his own past experience on how First impression is the last impression. While commenting, I turned up to be writing more than a whole paragraph which is quite enormous for a handy quick comment. Hence, I finally decided to write an article. Let’s get started…

Why Do You Need To Make A First Good Impression

Since my early primary schooling, I remember my dad talking about ‘making a first good impression is worth a lifetime relationship’. At that tender age, I was not too attentive on what he was talking about. But as I grew up, his words and repetitive ’speech’ started to make more sense. A good first impression is very important in any field, whether in friendship, dating, professional world or even a one-time unexpected meeting with someone. You never know when a split-second glance at your personality (or a very short conversation) can change the meaning of your whole world. Even online, while chatting, a first good impression is crucial in establishing a strong relationship. But different ‘meeting’ with someone will imply different level of approach, for example, meeting a professional guy would mean that you should have a formal approach.

But whatever the nature of the ‘meeting’, there are some obvious general tips which applies as we will see. Helping someone make a good opinion on you forms a key ingredient to a successful life; it’s just a matter of the opinion you give and the attitude you adopt to attract success. You cannot undo a first impression, nor will you get a second chance to create the deep impact and perception that a first impression triggers.

How Can A First Good Impression Help You?

A good first impression can help you get:
→ respect and trust
→ a job
→ a girl/wife
→ famous
→ friendship
→ so many unexpected golden opportunities

How To Make A First Good Impression?

Meeting with someone generally last a few 10 to 30 seconds or just a glimpse. So keeping this in mind, I will list the most relevant points first:-

1) Always keep a smile on your face, have a welcoming face - Have a good body language
2) Always dress up properly in whatever cloth/outfit you are wearing - be tidy
3) Try to be the first to greet the other
4) Give a warm shakehand
5) Have a good voice tone and speak intelligibly
6) Try to make the environment jovial + be relaxed, don’t make yourself feel too stressed, shy or too much enthusiasm - control your emotion and expressions.
7) Be yourself and talk convincingly - Avoid giving false impression on you
8.) Stay within limits - Don’t try to depict yourself as Mr Perfect
9) Have the gut to say you don’t know. Be honest, if your opponent is talking about a topic which you don’t know and he asks you if you know this and that, don’t say yes. Instead, simply tell him/her that you don’t know. This might infact trigger a new level of engagement with your opponent who is now enthusiastic to explain you something.
10) Engage into topics you know. Don’t talk about something which you don’t have any knowledge on. For example, if you don’t know anything about Linux, don’t try to fake it, you’ll end up creating a bad impression.
11) Talk about positive things. Don’t talk about your problems. Infact refrain yourself from talking about anything negative
12) Pay attention to what your opponent is saying - be attentive. There’s nothing more frustrating than to talk with someone and seeing his eyes or attention on something or someone else. So keep your eyes focussed.
13) Make it an engaging conversation where everyone can have their say. Don’t talk to much about yourself and keep the other one listening, this is a bad thing.

14) Do you have anything to add? I’m sure you do, so use the comment form below..

A Video On ‘How Can I Make A Good First Impression?’

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Anatomy Of An Ellipsis In Written Languages

→ We say an ellipsis, but many ellipses - (Ellipsis in singular form, but Ellipses in plural form)
→ Ellipsis, has two meanings as far as linguistics is concerned. Some linguists or writers might argue that it has like 3 or 4 meanings. But I’m convinced that it has only 2 main meanings and the rest are just derivatives, or different styles, as I will show you.

First Definition Of Ellipsis

In any written form, (like english, french, polish or chinese), the common reference attributed to an ellipsis is:
→ An ellipsis comprises a set of three consecutive dots (without any spaces between them)

Those 3 dots can be further broken down to the following:

1) To show a deliberate silence to stress an emotion or feeling

I am Sorely vexed…

- Here the author would remain silent after speaking and looking to his opponent with a severe face expression

2) To indicate or show the omission of a word or groups of words.
The words are omitted simply because the first set of words would give a clear indication of those [omitted] words.

It is raining heavily…

- The full intended sentence would be: “It is raining heavily today”
- ‘Today‘ is the omitted word because the verb ‘is‘, which is in the present tense, clearly shows that the action is happening now!

Second Definition Of Ellipsis / What Is An Elliptical Sentence?

→ In written english language, an ellipsis refers to the omission of a word or set of words from a sentence.
→ The idea of simply omitting words in a sentence, makes that ’sentence’ to be referred as an Elliptical Sentence.

E.g:
a) Either Chelsea or Man Utd will win the English Barclays Premier League this season.

- The full intended meaning of the sentence is:
Either Chelsea will win the English Barclays Premier League
Or Man Utd will win the English Barclays Premier League

b) Wakish does not often write articles, but he does it is a blogging explosion.

- The full intended meaning of the sentence is:
Wakish does not often write articles
but when he does write articles it is a blogging explosion

→ As you can deduce from the above, an elliptical sentence undoubtedly avoids repetition of words which can otherwise be read ‘in between the lines’.
Intelligent usage of ellipses greatly enhances the structure of a sentence and thus conveying a clear meaningful message.

Pitfalls Of Elliptical Sentences

Don’t try to force a sentence to be elliptical, it will convey an incorrect grammatical meaning.

E.g:
Alesha neither has nor will go to Pubcons

- Here obviously, the reader will be confused in understanding that sentence
- The writer intended to say:
Alesha neither has go
nor will go to Pubcons

This is completely wrong, so be careful with such incorrect elliptical sentences

Final Notes On Ellipsis

→ I have precised that I’m defining ellipsis as pertained in ‘Written Language’. But ellipses also have different meanings in other types of languages, namely: mathematical languages, programming languages or computer languages.

→ In written language, ellipses vary slightly in their position in a sentence depending on their specific ‘governing linguistic bodies‘; whether to include a space at the beginning or end of the ‘3 dots‘ or/and to enclose them within square brackets..etc. Usage of an ellipsis in Japanese is different from that in Polish. For instance, in the U.S, writers abide by a ‘guide‘ known as the ‘Bluebook‘.

Readers’ Short Exercises On Ellipsis

1) Can you think of other (derived) meanings of ellipses?
2) Can you try to think of sentences which could make a wrong usage of an ellipsis?

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1) Classy ==> grand

John Chow likes to eat at classy restaurants.

2) Cutlery ==> knives, spoons and forks

I felt very uneasy when the gorgeous waitress came near my table to lay the cutlery; I am not used to using the knife properly.

3) Accustomed ==> to get familiar with (to get used to)

It takes time to get accustomed to a different environment specially if it is your first time abroad.

4) Monotony ==> lack of variety

An artist can amazingly transmute the monotony of something, from abstract to concrete, through his artistic drawings.

5) Linger ==> lengthen

Due to the bad weather conditions, the nomads had to linger their stay for some weeks.

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