How to handle those pesky tiny words (Part 2)

Did you know there’s a rule in English that’s always true?

It says that prepositions (at, in, to, for, by) are followed by ing-verbs.

Like in these two apologies I’ve had to make (more than once):

I’m sorry for eating all the chocolate.

I apologise for eating the chocolate you bought for your mother.

But there’s a challenge: recognising if to is part of the infinitive verb that follows or a pesky (irritating) preposition attached to the preceding verb.

Here to belongs to the next verb eat:

I want to eat more chocolate.

While here to links backwards with look forward making it a preposition, and therefore it must be followed by an ing-verb:

I’m looking forward to eating more chocolate.

On the plus side, there aren’t a lot of verbs whose preposition is to.

And to remember them more easily, in Part 1 I suggested memorising sentences that you find funny or are relevant to your life.

To get you started, here are my examples for some common verbs that are followed by the preposition to:

I object to watching you eat chocolate.

He confessed to stealing my hidden chocolate stash.

She never got used to savouring chocolate alone.

I’m limiting myself to buying only dark chocolate.

We’ve contributed to enriching chocolatiers.

So perfect your prepositions with personalised phrases.

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Got any questions? Ask me. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

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