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Home -
Grammar - Everyday Grammar - 'Providing' More Assistance With
Prepositions |
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| 'Providing' More Assistance With
Prepositions |
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 'Providing'
More Assistance With Prepositions
The lesson includes a video program, an audio program
explaining this grammar topic, the script for the audio
program, a words in this story section,
and other important information. |
Video Program
Watch the video program explaining this grammar topic.
Then listen to the audio program explaining this grammar topic. |
Audio Program
Listen to the audio program explaining this grammar
topic. Then read the following written information. |
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'Providing' More Assistance With
Prepositions |
English learners know that prepositions can be difficult
to master. There are 94 one-word prepositions in
English, and about 56 prepositions with two or more
words, called “complex prepositions.” This adds up to
150 chances to make mistakes.
We cannot, of course, explain the small differences
between all 150 prepositions here. We can, however,
provide you with a few explanations of different
prepositions that use one particular verb: provide.
Provide (someone) with:
When provide is followed by an indirect object, English
speakers use the preposition “with.” Providing (someone)
with something means to give something wanted or needed.
Here is an example sentence, written by [former] U.S.
First Lady Michelle Obama: “Room to Read provides girls
with scholarships that cover the cost of housing, food,
and books.”
In this sentence, “girls” is the indirect object and
“scholarships” is the direct object.
Provide for:
Another preposition with the same verb is “provide for.”
“Provide for,” in general, means to make whatever is
necessary for someone available to him or her. We often
use this expression when we talk about parents providing
for their family.
In a VOA Learning English story about a
Cambodian-American filmmaker, we used the preposition in
this way: “She says changes such as migration away from
rural areas are allowing more women to find work and
provide for their families.”
This preposition can also be used in other ways.
“Provide for” can mean to make it possible for something
to happen in the future. For example, in our story about
water shortage in California, we wrote, “They say it
[California] needs to find a way to provide for the
growing need for water.”
Provide (something) to/for:
When “provide” is followed by a direct object, English
speakers can use the prepositions “to” or “for.” Provide
(something) to/for (someone) means that you deliver or
give something to someone. For example, “The company
provides health insurance to all of its employees.”
“Health insurance” is the direct object and “employees”
is the indirect object. In this example, we also could
have said “The company provides health insurance for all
of its employees.”
Both of these sentences are correct, but it is more
common to use “provide (something) for” than “provide
(something to)” someone. The expression using “to” is
rather new to American English, according to the
Internet application Google Ngrams.
Google Ngrams is an app that shows general changes in
English usage by searching all the words in Google’s
digital books.
The graph on Ngram for “provide (something) to” shows it
was hardly ever used before 1960.
Compare that to the Ngram graph for “provide (something
for).” The expressions appear more often. The
expressions also appeared much earlier, around 1920.
They were used then almost as often as they are used
now.
Understanding English prepositions can be difficult,
even for native speakers! But we hope that we have been
able to provide assistance to all of our listeners and
readers.
I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.
Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English.
Ashley Thompson was the editor. |
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Words in This Story |
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prepositions - n.
a word or group of words that is used with a noun,
pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, location,
or time, or to introduce an object
- direct
object - n. a
noun, pronoun, or noun phrase which indicates the
person or thing that receives the action of a verb
- indirect
object - n. a
noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that occurs in
addition to a direct object after some verbs and
indicates the person or thing that receives what is
being given or done
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Grammar Tips |
Can You Catch These Native Speaker Mistakes?
(Beginner - Listening)
An audio lesson to
help with your understanding of common mistakes. The English is
spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page with the written script for this
audio program. |
Commonly Confused Words: Part One
(Beginner - Listening,
reading)
A video lesson to
help with your understanding of commonly confused
words.
The English is
spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page. |
Commonly Confused Words: Part One
(Beginner - Listening)
An audio lesson to
help with your understanding of commonly confused
words. The English is
spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page with the written script for this
audio program. |
Commonly Confused Words: Part Two
(Beginner - Listening,
reading)
A video lesson to
help with your understanding of commonly confused
words.
The English is
spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page. |
Commonly Confused Words: Part Two
(Beginner - Listening)
An audio lesson to
help with your understanding of commonly confused
words. The English is
spoken at 75% of normal speed.
Click here to visit the lesson page with the written script for this
audio program. |
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