How to avoid typical preposition mistakes
2025-02-23 13 min
Description & Show Notes
Think you know your prepositions? Mistakes like “married with” instead of “married to” or “a friend from me” instead of “a friend of mine” are more common than you think! In this episode, we’ll help you spot and fix these tricky false friends so you can speak more natural English with confidence.
- Introduction (0:00 - 0:21)
- Topic Introduction: False Friends with Prepositions (0:24 - 1:25)
- Common Preposition Mistakes and Explanations (1:26 - 12:27)
- Incorrect Use of "At" Instead of "On" for Days of the Week (1:26 - 2:13)
- German Influence on Preposition Mistakes (2:13 - 2:50)
- "Good at" vs. "Good in" (2:50 - 3:49)
- "Married to" vs. "Married with" (3:49 - 4:19)
- "Written by" vs. "Written from" (4:31 - 5:01)
- "Welcome to" vs. "Welcome in" (5:02 - 6:30)
- "A friend of mine" vs. "A friend from me" (6:30 - 6:55)
- "Work at" vs. "Work by" (6:56 - 7:27)
- "By" vs. "Until" for Deadlines (7:28 - 8:45)
- "Look after" vs. "Look for" (8:45 - 9:42)
- "Come by" vs. "Come with" for Transport (9:42 - 10:44)
- Use of "Towards" (10:50 - 12:27)
- Close of this episode (12.28 – 13.20)
Would you like to work with us!
Rebecca: https://rebeccadeacon.com
Birgit: https://birgitkasimirski.de/
Birgit's book for list of preposition: Englische Grammatik Richtig Anwenden Teil 2
Dave: What about improving your communication skills in 2025? Check out my Short & Sweet 4-hr webinars: @ https://businessenglishacademy.de/company-short-sweet-soft-skill-webinars/
Dave: What about improving your communication skills in 2025? Check out my Short & Sweet 4-hr webinars: @ https://businessenglishacademy.de/company-short-sweet-soft-skill-webinars/
For Birgit's list of prepositions in the book: Englische Grammatik Richtig Anwenden Teil 2 https://www.klhe.de/project/englische-grammatik-richtig-anwenden-teil-2/
Why not try the “Business Prepositions Quiz“? https://padlet.com/davepreston/the-padlet-6tkq176t30g48f7a
Sie denken, Sie kennen Ihre Präpositionen? Fehler wie „verheiratet mit“ statt „verheiratet mit“ oder „ein Freund von mir“ statt „ein Freund von mir“ sind häufiger, als Sie denken! In dieser Folge helfen wir Ihnen, diese kniffligen falschen Freunde zu erkennen und zu korrigieren, damit Sie selbstbewusster und natürlicher Englisch sprechen können.
- Einführung (0:00 - 0:21)
- Themeneinführung: Falsche Freunde mit Präpositionen (0:24 - 1:25)
- Häufige Präpositionsfehler und Erklärungen (1:26 - 12:27)
- Falsche Verwendung von "At" statt "On" für Wochentage (1:26 - 2:13)
- Deutscher Einfluss auf Präpositionsfehler (2:13 - 2:50)
- "Good at" vs. "Good in" (2:50 - 3:49)
- "Married to" vs. "Married with" (3:49 - 4:19)
- "Written by" vs. "Written from" (4:31 - 5:01)
- "Welcome to" vs. "Welcome in" (5:02 - 6:30)
- "A friend of mine" vs. "A friend from me" (6:30 - 6:55)
- "Work at" vs. "Work by" (6:56 - 7:27)
- "By" vs. "Until" für Deadlines (7:28 - 8:45)
- "Look after" vs. "Look for" (8:45 - 9:42)
- "Come by" vs. "Come with" für Transport (9:42 - 10:44)
- Verwendung von "Towards" (10:50 - 12:27)
- Ende dieser Folge (12.28 - 13.20)
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi and welcome to The 3 English Experts.
I'm Birgit.
I'm Dave.
And I'm Rebecca.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey.
Hello there, everybody.
Welcome to a new episode.
And today, it's a little bit grammatical.
And we're looking at false friends with prepositions.
False friends with prepositions.
First of all, you may be asking, why is a preposition?
Okay, those little letters on, under, at, are all prepositions.
And often, if speakers of a foreign language translate literally out of their language into English, it can sometimes lead to mistakes.
And these are the so-called false friends.
So today, we're going to present 10 of our favourite, you could say, false friends and typical false friends that we hear from people when we're working with our clients and customers.
I thought today, Birgit could kick us off with her first false friend, typical preposition mistake.
Birgit.
Thank you, Dave.
Yes, you're absolutely right.
That's what happens when people have a sentence in their head and they literally translate.
So they might say, we will meet at Wednesday.
That's very often the case.
But it should really, really be on a day, on a certain day, on Monday, on Tuesday.
So it takes a little while.
I noticed with my learners to really, really implement that into the head.
Sometimes I use a little mnemonic aid, an easel sprooker, so you can step on the day maybe.
I don't know whether that's any helpful, but you need something because then I hear it again.
I think, oh, I think I said that last week.
I see you at Thursday.
No, on Rebecca.
And is that because of the am Donnerstag?
That's why they're doing it because of the am in German.
So they think of the A and they just go at.
Yeah.
Interesting.
I haven't really thought about that, actually.
My clients do the same thing, but I've never thought about why.
Yeah, because sometimes when you say they should know we meet at Kino, they say by the cinema.
Yeah.
So that's not.
I don't know.
It's all over the place.
I don't know.
Yeah.
But it is very typical.
And maybe the last thing to this one, you would also say on Christmas Day, on Easter Monday, but at Christmas in general.
So that's confusing.
Yeah, that is.
And also on holiday, for example, on my birthday, anything with day.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've got one where you do need at in this case.
I'm good at.
So often we hear I'm good in.
I'm good in baking or I'm bad in English.
Yes.
No, you're bad at or you're good at prepositions.
And again, it's the German, the good in something.
And so in this case, we do need the at.
I'm good at.
And I hear that a lot.
It's really common.
But I think it's OK if you talk of a subject, because in school you would maybe say I'm good in French at school.
I was good in or is that not true?
I was good in French class, maybe.
Yeah, I was good in my French class, but I was good at French at school.
I was good at French.
I would still go with that.
Yeah.
OK, Dave, you got another one.
Yeah.
It's one of those that actually when people say that, I just think to myself, some strange.
Is it right or is it wrong?
It's so often now that you hear it wrong that you now think it's probably correct.
And it's married with.
So you often hear people saying I'm married with blah, blah, blah.
And in actual fact, it's married to, which is the correct English preposition that goes in that context.
But I've heard it so often now.
I sometimes is it with or is it to?
But it is to the same as connected to maybe that's where it's from.
I don't know.
So you're connected to somebody.
Yeah, but not connected with.
Yeah.
Again, people would probably mix that up.
Connected to.
OK, the next one for me would be this is written from somebody, meaning von jemandem geschrieben.
Not like I get a letter from somebody, so somebody posts it to me.
But for example, four grammar books are written by me or were written by me.
Von, I think you have to learn that you can't translate that.
Yeah.
But that refers to a film, a song by.
It's always by.
It could also be a painting.
It's a painting by somebody, not from Da Vinci.
It's by, you know.
By.
You also say by in that case.
Originating it.
Yeah.
OK.
My other one, this really annoys me every time I land at Frankfurt Airport and you come out and in massive letters, it says that's what is real common in Frankfurt.
But it also says welcome in Frankfurt.
Really, guys?
Really, guys?
So it's welcome to always welcome to welcome to my presentation.
Welcome to Frankfurt.
I don't know who translated that or what some genius decided to do that.
But it just shows you even when you're spending huge amounts of money and these translation mistakes, they happen.
So maybe somebody working at Frankfurt Airport.
I don't know.
I always feel like I'm going to enjoy the big graffiti thing across it, you know, correcting it.
Welcome to.
So, yeah.
OK.
Sounds like a good plan, going to change it.
A bit of vandalising.
Yeah.
Leave our logo.
Yeah, exactly.
Cross it through with some graffiti.
Huge marketing.
And then meet English experts.
That's not bad.
I like what you're giving me.
Yeah.
I live near the airport.
You give me ideas.
You live there.
You have to do that.
A couple of glasses of wine and I'll be on my way.
So if anybody spots a change in the signage at Frankfurt Airport, we know who it was.
I've just told everybody who it was now, I would be arrested immediately anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Another one.
A friend from me.
I nearly said it in the right way and not the wrong way.
A friend from me is a common one.
And of course, it should be a friend of mine.
OK, so it's not just the preposition that is wrong there.
It's also the me instead of mine.
OK, so a friend of somebody is the next one.
And my next one will be I work and then they come up very often with buy.
But that's not it.
I work at a company or you could work for somebody, obviously.
But yeah, I work at Deutsche Bank.
I work at Sparkasse or wherever you work.
I think the Germans, they use buy quite a lot, just generally in German, right?
There's a lot of buy.
I need to house a buy.
Always.
Yeah, you're right.
They use it a lot.
Yeah.
By you or by me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But that would be at your place or at my place, not by me.
By me.
By me.
Oh, by me.
What?
Oh, dear.
OK, my next one is this is a really common one.
The difference, how to give a deadline.
So I need it until Monday.
This is why I hear a lot.
I need your reply until the end of the month.
No, I need it by the end of the month.
So here you do need buy because, of course, bis in German you can translate into until and you can also translate into buy.
This is the confusion, I think.
So buy is the latest point, like the deadline.
And until is more this from until.
Yeah.
From von bis.
Yeah.
Wie lange noch?
I always say, for example, the supermarket is open until 10.
From now until 10.
Wie lange noch?
Kind of thing.
Or I'm working until six o'clock today.
How much longer?
Kind of thing.
Whereas, but I need to leave here by 530.
Otherwise I'll miss my train.
Yeah.
The latest point.
But it's a quite tricky one, I think.
It's not easy.
Yeah.
I don't know if you explain it in a different way, Dave.
That's always how I explain a deadline and kind of period kind of thing.
Yeah.
That's a common one.
Okay, Dave, you got another one?
I'm going to ask you a question, ladies.
Okay.
Can you look for my dog?
Have you lost it?
Yes.
Where is it?
Do you know you have a dog, Dave?
I don't have a dog.
Oh, you don't have a dog.
Of course, this is a phrasal verb that is often mistranslated in English to look for my dog instead of look after my dog.
Okay.
So it should be after.
This is a phrasal verb with the look is the verb.
And then the preposition afterwards is, of course, after.
So take care of, another meaning.
But we often hear people saying, can you look for my dog?
And you think, well, are you missing it?
Where's it gone?
Ran away or something?
That's one to be aware of.
We also have an edition all about phrasal verbs.
So if you'd like to take a listen to that, then feel free.
Now I have another one that's a very common one and also very difficult for natives to get rid of.
How have you got here?
I came with a bath.
So how does that sound to you natives?
Somebody comes with a bath.
So, yeah, I carried it with me, basically.
I put my arm around it and I lifted it.
I came with it.
We came together as like two entities.
I came with the boss.
Yeah.
With my car.
So I came and it's sitting next to your partner.
Somebody coming with you, you come by bus.
It's a means of transport you use.
And then you come by bus and any kind of transport, even bicycle.
Yeah.
Apart from feet, then you're on foot.
I came by feet.
I came by feet.
So I came on foot.
Or walked.
I walked.
Yeah, I just go easy.
I walk around.
Just go easy.
I walked here.
Easy.
Yeah, but it's tricky anyway, because it's always, there's always an exception.
Yeah.
Okay.
And here's another one, hopefully useful, which is, I realise a lot of learners forget about this and haven't used it very often, is towards.
Towards, if you go in Richtung, physically, so you give direction.
So where's the bakery?
Or walk straight ahead towards the church in Richtung.
But we can also use that when you're thinking towards something, we're working towards, auf ein Ziel zu.
And I find that a very useful preposition and I usually mention it.
And also in one of my books, which is Englische Grammatik richtig anwenden, part two, the red book, I have listed prepositions.
Because I think a lot of people use some, but not all of them.
And I thought it would be good to have a list and readers, interested people could have a look at it.
And I always advise my learners to take a pick, to take the pick of things they want to use.
They haven't used a lot if they wanted to improve their English.
And also to find sentences that are true for them.
So if you can think of anything that uses this preposition you might never have used before, but that's a true sentence for you, that will probably be much more likely to stick in your head, other than if you just read a list online and somebody's providing a sentence for you.
So if you take that effort, a little effort, and find a nice example, take a pick, then that's a good learning here.
Okay, so that was our episode on prepositions.
Hopefully it was helpful.
Next time we're going to move on to presentations.
We are going to talk about English for presentations, some nice phrases that you can use.
And this is one of Dave's big topics.
He does this a lot with clients.
So he's going to be telling us all about some useful phrases and there'll be hopefully a nice takeaway for everybody.
Bye for now.
Thank you.
Bye.
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