"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 o...
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