Prepositions after nouns

Prepositions after nouns are the short words that follow a noun to show its relationship with other words (time, reason, target, possession, etc.). Many nouns require specific prepositions (collocations). Learning these noun + preposition patterns is essential for clear, natural English, especially in business contexts.

• A noun often ‘selects’ a preposition (e.g., 'interest in', 'access to').
• Some combinations are fixed — you must learn them as collocations.
• Wrong or missing prepositions can change the meaning or make a sentence sound unnatural.

The most important rule is that many nouns are fixed with particular prepositions — these pairings (collocations) must be learned rather than guessed.

• Memorize frequent noun + preposition pairs (e.g., 'access to', 'interest in').
• Use example sentences to see how the combination functions in context.
• When in doubt, consult a collocation dictionary or reliable corpora (e.g., British National Corpus).

Collocations are often idiomatic; literal translations may mislead.

Watch for frequent, universal errors when using prepositions after nouns.

• Choosing the wrong preposition (e.g., 'demand on' instead of 'demand for').
• Omitting the required preposition (e.g., 'access the data' instead of 'access to the data').
• Using a preposition that belongs to the verb instead of the noun (confusing verb + preposition vs noun + preposition).
• Separating the noun and its preposition with unnecessary words (e.g., 'the responsibility always for' — bad word order).
• Translating word-for-word from your language without checking the correct English collocation.

Focus on collocations and correct word order rather than literal translation.