Dependent Prepositions + Complementation + Colligation + Derivation — Grammaire C1

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Dependent prepositions: learn the word with its preposition

In English the preposition is often chosen by the word before it, not by the meaning of the sentence: you rely on something, contribute to it, account for it. These combinations are fixed and frequently differ from the Russian or Armenian case or postposition, so each one has to be learnt as a single unit.

Verb + preposition	Adjective + preposition	Noun + preposition
rely / depend on	consistent with	evidence of
contribute / lead to	associated with	impact on
result in	aware / capable of	lack of
account for	subject / relevant to	approach to
stem / benefit from	responsible for	reason for

Demand for housing depends on interest rates.
Poor diet can lead to serious health problems.
Her theory accounts for most of the observed data.

Verb patterns: to-infinitive, -ing or that-clause?

When a second verb follows, the first verb decides its form. There is no general logic to rely on: agree takes a to-infinitive, recommend takes -ing, enable needs an object before the to-infinitive. Each verb has to be stored together with its pattern.

Pattern

Dependent Prepositions + Complementation + Colligation + Derivation — Grammaire C1 | Sunny Academy

verb + to-infinitive	agree, refuse, fail, tend	They refused to sign.
verb + -ing	recommend, consider, involve, avoid	We avoid using jargon.
verb + object + to-infinitive	enable, encourage, allow, require	It allows users to log in.
verb + preposition + -ing	insist on, succeed in, prevent sb from	He succeeded in winning.
verb + that-clause	suggest, recommend, insist, propose	I suggest that we wait.