Apprendre B110 min Membre

Prepositions & Collocations

Prepositions that trip up French speakers on the TOEIC

TOEIC Parts 5-6 love testing preposition collocations — fixed pairings between verbs/adjectives and prepositions. French and English rarely use the same preposition, so translating from French almost always gives the wrong answer.

"depend on" — dépendre de
"The outcome depends on the quarterly results." Not "depends of" — French uses "de" but English uses "on."
"interested in" — intéressé par
"We are interested in your proposal." Not "interested by" — even though French uses "par."
"responsible for" — responsable de
"She is responsible for the European market." Not "responsible of."
"comply with" — se conformer à
"All employees must comply with the new regulations." Not "comply to."
"apply for" (a job) vs "apply to" (a rule) — postuler à / s'appliquer à
"She applied for the position." vs "This rule applies to all staff."

More TOEIC preposition traps

consist of (not "consist in"), participate in (not "participate at/to"), subscribe to (not "subscribe at"), result in (not "result to"), succeed in (not "succeed to" — "réussir à").

Common mistake

French speakers often say "I am interested by your offer" — say "I am interested in your offer" instead. French uses "par" but English always uses "in" after "interested."

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