DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS 5.1 Verb + Preposition

5. DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS

5.1 Verb + Preposition

• 
  We agree with you entirely on the need for additional commitment.
  
• 
  The whole future of this operation depends on a highly skilled workforce.
  
• 
  We look forward to hearing the details of your forthcoming visit.
  
• 
  We have already paid for the services of a tax consultant.
  

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the delay.

They succeeded in boosting pre-tax profits.

We do not use a preposition after these verbs:

Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a question, please.

We are to meet a delegation from China. (BrE)

We are to meet with a delegation from China. (AmE)
D Practice
1. Two managers are discussing a strike by lorry drivers working for road haulage companies. Complete the spaces in the dialogue by selecting an appropriate form of the correct verb from those given here. The first two have been done for you.

hope for agree to hear about insist on amount to allow for depend on wait for think about rely on

A:	Have you____ (1) the road transport strike?
B:	Yes, It's terrible. We ____ (2) the drivers for all our components.
A:	We should ____ (3) using our own drivers.
B:	That ____ (4) whether they would be happy to drive during a strike.
A:	We can ____ (5) them meeting their contractual obligations!
B:	Yes, but we have to ____ (6) the problems they could meet on the roads.
A:	That ____ (7) supporting the strike!
B:	Perhaps. Anyway, we should have a meeting with our drivers and ____ (8) a simple solution.
A:	Yes, they might ____ 9) move our components.
B:	If not, we'll have to ____ (10) the end of the strike.

2. Think of your own family or the place where you work or where you study, or your country. Write six sentences with verb + preposition combinations.

5.2. Verb + Object + Preposition

• 
  First of all, let me describe the main parts of the system to you.
  
• 
  They explained the operation of the software to the audience and then demonstrated it.
  
• 
  Obviously I prefer the new model to the old one.
  
• 
  They have spent a fortune on developing a very safe working environment.
  

1 verb +		object + preposition			+ prepositional object
protect us		from			unfair competition
2 verb +	object + preposition			+ Ving
prevent us		from	entering the Japanese market

1. The preposition from is used after 'disabling' verbs such as:

They prevented us from exporting the goods.

They helped us to export the goods.

We regret that we need to remind ___ ___ the terms of the contract when you supplied the goods.

According to Article 31 Paragraph 4, you would provide ___ ___ full instructions on the installation of the H50. Your representative, Mr Yogi, has consistently failed to explain ___ ___ our technicians.

Six weeks ago we preferred ___ ___ rival products, but the service you have provided is lamentable.

If this problem is not resolved immediately and to our total satisfaction, we will have to refer ___ ___ our lawyers.

5.3 Verb + Adverb

• 
  All exporters must fill in this form in duplicate and send it to the address shown below.
  
• 
  They put on an excellent buffet supper after the presentation.
  
• 
  We have worked very hard to speed up delivery; we hope you will make the same effort for payments.
  
• 
  We regret to inform you that we have had to turn down your very generous offer.
  
• 
  Please could you turn up early at the stand? We will need to make sure that the samples are all there.
  

verb +	adverb (+ object) +	rest of sentence
fill	in this form	in duplicate
turn	up	early at the stand

The following alternative word order is also possible:

I've brought back the plans. Would you like to see them?

Other phrasal verbs have a different meaning from the individual parts:

He made up a wonderful story about his adventures in Rotaronga. (make up = invent)

arrive cause discover stop working close (a factory) abandon (a meeting) complete (a form) reject (goods received)

call off send back turn up bring about find out shut down break down fill in

2 When was the last time you invented an excuse for not doing something?

3 When was the last time someone arrived unexpectedly to see you?

4 Give an example of something surprising that you discovered recently.

5 Have you ever rejected an offer of work?

6.1 PREPOSITION OF TIME

• 
  We expect to receive a reply to our request in two weeks.
  
• 
  The delegation will arrive at our headquarters at 10.30 sharp.
  
• 
  Our records show that we despatched the goods on 25 July.
  

1 time-when prepositions, which answer the question: 'When did it happen?'

at in on by during before after between

The meeting started at 9 o'clock. (point of time when the meeting started)

2 time-duration prepositions, which answer the question: 'How long did it last?'

from ... to ... up to until till for

The meeting lasted until 12 o'clock.
C Uses
1. At, in, on and by:

At + clock time at 6 o'clock On + days of the week on Monday on Thursday afternoon In + parts of the day in the morning/afternoon/evening but: at night

On + dates on 3rd May (spoken: on the third of May) In + months and years in May in 1992 By + a deadline It must be finished by 1 January.

Note: in time = in sufficient time with time to spare and on time = punctually.

We use by for an action which happens at or before a deadline:

We plan to complete testing by 1 January.

We use until or till for an action which continues up to a deadline:

We plan to continue testing until/till 1 January.

3. Omission of time preposition:

a) before this, last and next when we use the above words in relation to now: this evening; last week

b) in phrases beginning with yesterday and tomorrow:

yesterday afternoon; tomorrow morning

c) in expressions indicating the time frame:

I travel abroad 60 days a year. (not: in a year)

The plane flies at 200 kilometres an hour. (not: in an hour)

__ the night most of the work is routine maintenance and only 20 or so workers are on duty. __ the morning when the day shift starts we work at 80 per cent of full production capacity. Well, at least we do __ the summer and autumn months, up __ about the end of November when production is reduced to about 60 per cent.

We don't work __ Sundays of course ‒ the factory closes, except in an emergency.
2. Complete the spaces in the following with an appropriate preposition. If no preposition is needed, leave the space blank.
1 The meeting will be held ___ 5th July 1994.

2 The project began ___ June.

3 We'll have a 20-minute break ___ 4 o'clock.

4 The report won't be ready ___ we've collected all the field survey data.

5 The work, which has already started, will be finished ___ the end of the week at the latest.

6 Make sure you've read the survey before our meeting ___next week.

7 We'll work all day and relax ___ the evening.
Writing Activity
Describe a typical working day in your company and also any seasonal variation in your company's activities during the year.

6.2 PREPOSITIONS OF TIME

• 
  During the last quarter we started to use a new packaging material.
  
• 
  Next year we are opening a branch office in Minsk.
  

The meeting lasted for two hours. – length of activity

The computer went down during the night. – period of time providing a time frame when the event happened

The product will be maintained by us after signature of the contract.

1 Last night and tonight:

We use the when we use the above words in time expressions not related to now.

but: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

She interrupted us in the middle of the meeting.

At the end of the contract there is a clause you should read.

In the end and after much discussion they agreed to the new terms.
C Practice

1. Are the following sentences right or wrong? If wrong, make the necessary correction.
1 We finished the project on time; so we had three days to spare.

2 We worked on the study for two weeks.

3 While the two-week period, we had no technical support at all.

4 Before to start on the next study, there will be a short training course.

5 The next year we are sure to see the results of our efforts.

6 The following day they agreed to sign the contract without any conditions.

2 Unfortunately the user study overran by one week. The reason was that ___ the analysis stage, we encountered some unexpected problems with the data.

3 So we finally managed to input all the data ___ 15 January.

4 We continued to receive data output ___ another week.

5 Naturally we had to verify the results ___ we could hand over the results to the client.

6 So ___ the beginning and the end of the project we needed a total of 8 weeks.

7 ___ the beginning of our first meeting, the client told us that time was of the essence; ___ the middle I explained about the unexpected problems. So, ___ the end I don't think the overrun will be a significant factor.
3. Below is an extract from the log of Sygma II, an oil platform in the North Sea. Complete the text by writing suitable prepositions in the gaps.
___ the day the sea had been very rough. ___ 16.00 the helicopter arrived bringing the replacement drillers. These were needed as 2 of our crew had gone sick ___ the previous night. The new drillers are to stay with us ___ the end of next week. They have just worked ___ 2 months onshore and are happy to have a change. ___ the evening the sea calmed down and we were able to start working comfortably again. However, just ___ the evening shift started, the computer went down again. The computer technicians were called in and ___ 22.00 they had the computer running again. ___ that, there were no problems ___ the night shift. The morning shift reported for duty ___ time at 06.00.

Writing Activity

Murphy's law states, 'If anything can go wrong, it will.' Write about one such occasion in the form of a log and use as many prepositions of time as possible.

7. RELATIVE CLAUSES

• 
  The machine which produced this printout has been withdrawn.
  
• 
  The INJ300, which produced reasonable copy quality, has been replaced by the INJ400.
  
• 
  Pat Smith, who heads the Administration Department, will meet you on your next visit.
  
• 
  The only person who can give you the information is out of the office at the moment.
  
• 
  Last year we sold the site where we started up our company.
  
• 
  I'm afraid we can't relax our payment terms at a time when others are tightening theirs.
  

There are two types of relative clause:

• 
  defining relative clauses
  
• 
  non-defining relative clauses
  

The machine which produced this printout has been withdrawn. (defining: no commas)

Pat Smith, who heads the Administration Department, will meet you on your next visit. (non-defining: commas)
C Uses

	Defining and non-defining		Defining only
	Personal	Non-personal	Personal and non-personal
subjective	who	which	that
objective	who(m)	which	that, zero (no pronoun)
genitive	whose	of which/whose
locative		where
temporal		when

Defining relative clauses provide essential information which restricts or clarifies the meaning of the preceding noun or noun phrase by specifying its meaning more clearly.

The only person who can give you the information is out of the office at the moment.

The clause 'who can give you the information' identifies the person; without this essential information, the sentence has a very different meaning.

Non-defining relative clauses provide additional, non-essential information.

The INJ300, which produced reasonable copy quality, has been replaced by the INJ400.

The clause 'which produced reasonable copy quality' provides additional, non-essential information; without this information the basic meaning of the sentence remains the same.

1 Talking about people (personal):

subjective – defining: The person who/that prepared that report no longer works for us.

subjective ‒ non-defining: Carla Jensen, who prepared that report, no longer works for us.

objective – defining: I've spoken to the workers who(m)/that/(no pronoun) we are going to lay off.

1 The relative pronoun after the reason:

I have read the reasons why/that the delivery was delayed but I find them hard to believe.

The reason that/why we are so disappointed is that we had always relied on your prompt service. (not: the reason because)

2 The relative pronoun after all, each, every and compounds:

We have rejected all the offers (that) we have received.

We have tried everything (that) we could.

Each hotel (that) we tried gave us the same response.

2 He said the environment was everyone's responsibility. It is a key issue.

3 Lockville is now a beauty spot. There used to be a chemical plant there.

4 We made mistakes in the past. We knew less than we know now.

5 The captains of industry have major responsibilities. We depend on them.

6. The industries produce the products. We criticise the industries. We buy the products.

There are many cinemas where you can see films in the original version.

The best theatre, which is in the town centre, is 200 years old.

The owner of the club in the town centre, whose wife is a dancer, is Ukrainian.

8. QUESTIONS

B: I'm afraid I really have no idea.

A: It was Jim, wasn't it?

B: Jim, you approved this order?

C: Yes, I did. Why? Is there a problem?

A: Yes, half of the goods haven't been delivered.

C: Yes, I know. But could you just look at the accompanying note? It explains everything.
B Form
There are three forms of question:

• 
  direct questions
  
• 
  indirect questions
  
• 
  statement questions (+ question tag)
  

There are two types of direct questions:

Who approved this order?

Is there a problem? ‒ Yes.

Note that alternative questions have the same form as yes/no questions:

Did Helen or Peter check the balance? ‒ Peter.

Indirect questions comprise:

• 
  a question word (wh-, if or whether)
  
• 
  a clause with the verb in statement word order:
  

But could you tell me where I can find the manual?

There are two types of statement questions:

• 
  a statement with rising intonation: Jim, you approved this order?
  
• 
  a statement + question tag:
  

Jim, you didn't approve this order, did you?

Below are the main wh-questions according to question word:

We use indirect questions in:

• 
  Reported questions
  

• 
  Polite requests
  

We use these to ask for confirmation.

• 
  Asking for confirmation of a positive statement:
  

• 
  Asking for confirmation of a negative statement:
  

A: Ten years.

Q: Could you tell me who were the main partners in the project?

A: FRS, UBDuss A. G., and Bokal.

Q: And you didn't plan to spend so much money, didn't you?

A: Of course we didn't.

Q: You say the forecasts were inaccurate. Who did resign after these forecasts?

A: Karl Drew resigned.

Q: Was that a correct decision?

A: I don't know ‒ it was his decision.

4. All of the following are grammatically wrong. How should they be said?

1 Is coming Mr Perez?	7 Do you be ready?
2 Did they sold the subsidiary?	8 We not met before?
3 What means 'price/earning' ratio?	9 Do you can help me?
4 Does she have completed the survey?	10 Why they came?
5 When it must be finished?	11 Why she is angry?
6 No possible to get here earlier? (2 variants)

5. Write the question which relates to the worlds in italics.

1. Output has increased by 7.5%.

2. Betamix became a public limited company in 1990.

3. The department meeting is held once a month.

4. We'll get back to you very shortly. (2 variants)

5. It cost in excess of 2 million dollars.

6. A consultant was called in to look at our recruitment policy.

7. I prefer the second solution.

8. There were at least 500 enquiries.

9. It's my ticket.

10. The bank is about 100 metres from here.

6. These are some questions that were asked during a Consumer Survey. Provide the question words and (if necessary) verbs.

1. _____________ most of your groceries from?

a. Corner shop

b. Supermarket

c. Hypermarket

2. _____________ on groceries every week?

a. under £50

b. between £50-100

c. over £100

d. £200

3. ____ of these dairy products ____ regularly?

a. yoghurt

b. low fat milk

c. soft cheese

d. cottage cheese

4. ___ pots of yoghurt ____ on average each week?

a. none

b. one

c. two

d. more than 2

5. When buying your groceries, ____ choose a particular store rather than another?

a. convenience

b. car parking

c. selection of products

d. prices

e. service

6. ________ cook pasta?

a. 2 times a week

b. once a week

c. less than once a month

d. never

7. ___________ a car in your household?

a. you

b. your spouse

c. other

d. no one

9. DESCRIBING TRENDS

A Sample sentences

• 
  Our turnover rose last year, but our profits dropped.
  
• 
  The banks have raised their interest rates twice this year and this has pushed up the cost of borrowing.
  
• 
  There has been a slight increase in the value of the dollar, but the pound is down again.
  

B Form

Trends are changes or movements. These changes are normally in numerical items, e.g. costs, production volumes or unemployment. There are three basic trends

For each trend there are a number of verbs and nouns to express the movement. We can divide the verbs into transitive and intransitive:

• 
  after a transitive verb we must put an object:
  

The banks have raised their interest rates twice this year.

• 
  after an intransitive verb we cannot put a direct object:
  

Our turnover rose last year, but our profits dropped.
Now let's look at the language of trends in more detail.

	Verbs			Nouns
	Transitive	Intransitive
	increase raise put/push/step up extend expand	increase rise go/be up grow extend expand boom		increase rise growth extension expansion boom (dramatic rise)
	Verbs			Nouns
	Transitive	Intransitive
	decrease drop put/push down cut reduce	decrease fall drop go/be down decline collapse slump		decrease fall drop decline cut reduction collapse (dramatic fall) slump (dramatic fall)
	Verbs				Nouns
	Transitive		Intransitive
	keep/hold ...stable/constant maintain... (at the same level)		remain stable stay constant		stability

Other expressions

to stand at: we use this phrase to focus on a particular point, before we mention the trends of movements:

In the first year sales in our region stood at 109,000 units.

to reach a peak of:

In the sixth year sales in our region reached a peak of 24,000 units.

Sometimes we need to give more information about a trend, as follows:

There has been a slight increase in the value of the dollar. (the degree of change)

Share prices fell rapidly on the London stock exchange today. (the speed of change)

Remember that we modify a noun with an adjective (a slight increase); and a verb with an adverb (to increase slightly).
Describing the degree of change

dramatic(ally)

vast(ly)/huge(ly)/enormous(ly)

substantial(ly)/considerable/considerably/ significant(ly)

moderate(ly)

slight(ly)/a little

Describing the speed of change
rapid(ly)

quick(ly)

swift(ly)
gradual(ly)
slow(ly)
C Uses
1 Describing the difference:

This year turnover has increased by 5 per cent.

This year there has been an increase in turnover of 5 per cent.

2 Describing the end point:

This year turnover has risen to £3m.

This year there has been a rise in turnover to £3m.
Notes

rise and raise

verbs:

rise is intransitive: Interest rates rose by 2 per cent last year.

raise is transitive: The bank has raised interest rates by 1 per cent.

nouns:

BrE: We review wages in October and introduce the annual rise in January.

AmE: We review wages in October and introduce the annual raise in January.

Do not use up after increase, raise and rise; do not use down after fall, drop and decrease.

3 Some common verbs

	dramatic movement	slight movement	amount of increase
↗	rocket soar boost surge jump	edge up ease up firm creep up slip back	double triple quadruple increase tenfold
↘	dive plummet plunge slash	edge down ease down dip slip back	halve

4 If there has been little or no movement we could say that:

The market has been	morose slack sluggish gloomy stagnant steady	Sales	peaked levelled off bottomed out

5 If there has been more activity:

The market has been

active buoyant firm

6 A record high or low figure can be referred to as an all-time high or an all-time low.

D Practice
1. Decide whether the following statements represent no movement at all, a slow movement or rapid one. Write N, S or R.

1 The plummeting dollar has boosted American exports.

2 Sales have been stagnant.

3 There has been a surge in the number of complaints.

4 Imports have risen somewhat.

5 There has been a slight increase in production costs.

6 The glut in the market has caused prices to slump.

7 Home sales have slipped back.

8 Prices are likely to remain steady overall.

9 The price of gold eased back by the end of the day to $423 an ounce.

10 Coffee futures edged up yesterday.

11 Euro-Disney shares went up sharply to 113p.

2. Complete the passage using an appropriate expression to replace the graphs.

Last year was a bad year for commodity prices.

The commodity price index 1) throughout January and February reaching an 2)_record in mid-March. Prices then started to 3) and

4) until the end of April, when they 5) again with disastrous results for commodity producers. Despite a 6) in May the situation worsened again in June and prices 7) once more to another

8) _record at the end of July. Prices remained stable for the rest of the summer and even 9) during the period September-November, before 10) yet again at the end of the year.
3. Draw a graph which shows developing trends. Choose any of the following subjects:

• 
  company performance
  
• 
  product sales
  
• 
  economic trends
  
• 
  development of tourism, industry or leisure interests
  

Then write a short paragraph describing your graph, accounting for its profile.

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