An Indecent Preposition

"Distinguish between the preposition to and the infinitive marker to. If to is a preposition, it should be followed by a noun or a gerund."

This appeared as part of a chapter in Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference, Sixth Edition, the textbook I was using to help my ESOL students tackle preposition use. The chapter was aimed specifically at ESOL learners and had much helpful information.

Prepositions—words that have to do with spatial relationships, like with, from, by, at, for and on—pose particular difficulties for new learners of English. There are few hard-and-fast rules for prepositions in English, but using the wrong one can vastly change the meaning of a sentence. My favorite example of this malleability is the verb to get, which drastically changes meaning depending on which preposition one adds to it. One can get up in the morning, get in a car, get on board with an idea, get over something or someone, get out of a responsibility, get on with one's life, get along alright, get past a disagreement, get it together, get ready for an occasion, get with the program, get under the covers, and get it on. Use any of those in the wrong context, and one will get into trouble.

All of those get phrases are idiomatic; their meanings are not apparent from the definitions of the words in them. Their meanings are dependent on the phrases being used in their entirety, and arise from cultural factors, rather than grammatical placement or semantics. Think about how many times you use the phrase "get over it," without indicating some physical barrier that someone must literally climb over. That phrase is idiomatic.

When I introduced this lesson to the two women who showed up for my class last night, the expressions on their faces clearly indicated mixed emotions. I could tell they were both equally frustrated and terrified of the topic, but also eager to have some concrete help with it.

That quoted passage from Hacker's book turned out to be a gem. It harkened back to a question Van had asked many weeks earlier.

Van had been preparing resumes and cover letters in her quest for a full-time job. She has been in the US for more than twenty years, has an advanced degree and teaches math part-time at the university. Her English is quite good, but the few stumbling blocks she still encounters with details like preposition use make her feel it isn't.

After sending her draft of a cover letter to the Career Center for some revision feedback, she became perplexed by the phrase "looking forward to." As in, "I am looking forward to hearing from you about this exciting opportunity."

Like most ESOL students, Van had been taught that to always indicates an infinitive, and therefore must be followed by the unconjugated form of a verb: to be, to say, to hear. She had also been taught that all prepositions must be followed by a noun: at a place, with a person, from a time, etc.

But no one had ever explained that sometimes a preposition does not function as a preposition. That tiny, two-letter word was causing her more confusion than the most complicated of mathematical formulae. Once its dual functions, as both a preposition and an infinitive marker, became clear, some of the furrows in Van's brow relaxed.

They soon reappeared.

"So, what is a gerund?" she asked.

Ah, the gerund! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! Sitting on my sofa, drinking a fresh cup of coffee, thinking about grammar, watching my cat groom himself, teaching a smaller than usual class: these are just some of the ways that using gerunds makes my life better!

"A gerund is just the i-n-g form of a verb," I said.

My two students remained silent for a moment. I could almost see their brains working this one out. I let it sink in, then sallied forth.

"So, we use the i-n-g form in the past and present progressive, right?" I wrote We are talking in class and He was walking down the street on the board and underlined the verbs. "So, in these cases, the i-n-g form is a verb. It indicates an on-going action; right?"

They both nodded. This was clearly well-covered ground. Then I wrote two more sentences.

"But what about these? The i-n-g words function differently here; right?"

Talking is an essential part of writing. He enjoyed walking in the park.

Again, I underlined the i-n-g words. 

"In these cases," I said, "the i-n-g words are nouns. They no longer function as verbs here. So an i-n-g word used as a noun instead of a verb is called a gerund."

Van's brow once again un-furrowed. She smiled widely and wrote down some notes. Luz Alba asked again how to pronounce gerund, and we continued with the lesson, using i-n-g words as objects of several prepositions: She is addicted to reading; he looks forward to seeing his girlfriend; they are obsessed with cleaning; we objected to being left out.

I am always happiest when I can give my ESOL students a grammar rule to follow. The problem is that there are so many exceptions to the rules of English, they become easily overwhelmed and frustrated. This one little clarification gave Van and me both a bit of concrete gratification.

We then moved on to an exercise on homonyms, choosing between two choices to fill in blanks in sentences:

Jack wanted his friend to _________ him on what to do. (advice / advise)

Van had some trouble distinguishing the noun from the verb in this case, as well as pronouncing the two differently. But with a little repetition, she got it.

I was most overjoyed that both my students had no trouble differentiating there/their/they're, your/you're, and to/too/two. If only the college students I tutor could do as much.