Adjective & Preposition Combinations (English Grammar)

Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on adjective and

preposition combinations.

Okay, so first of all, we have to understand what an adjective is. As a reminder, an adjective

is a word that describes something, that can describe a noun. So when you look at these

adjectives or these sentences, I want you to tell me if you can identify the adjectives.

What are the adjectives in these sentences? So, "He's not interested, hmm, writing." Okay,

the adjective is "interested." Okay, so "interested" describes this person's state. "He is not

interested something writing." Okay, the other one, "I am excited, hmm, your birthday." "Excited."

Okay, I think you're starting to see the pattern, right? So, "Joanna is afraid." "I think she's

tired." "He is worried." "Mark is good." Okay, so these are all adjectives, adjectives, adjectives,

and more adjectives. Now, in English, we often have adjectives combined with prepositions

to create an expression or a small phrase, and we can follow these prepositions with

either a gerund, which is an -ing noun, a verb acting like a noun, or just a noun in

general. So, you notice, "writing," "your birthday," "failing," "trying," "his test,"

"cooking." Okay, so we have some gerunds and we have some nouns. Now, before this, we have

to understand which prepositions are commonly put with these adjectives. So, in the first

sentence, "He's not interested, hmm, writing." So, think of as many prepositions as you can.

You have "at," "on," "in," you have "about," "around," "by," "with," tons and tons and

tons of possibilities. So, what you have to know is, okay, which preposition always goes

with this adjective. So, the first one, maybe you know this, "He's not interested in writing."

Okay, "I'm not interested in doing something." Okay, second one, "I am excited, hmm, writing."

Okay, second one, "I am excited, hmm, your birthday." Okay, you are excited about something

usually. "I am excited about your birthday." You can also say, "I am excited for your birthday,"

but the most common preposition here after "excited" is, "You are usually excited about

something." So, you can be excited about a person's birthday. You can be excited about

your vacation. You can be excited about doing something this weekend with your friends.

Okay, next one, "Joanna is afraid, hmm, failing." Okay, "afraid" is commonly followed by "of."

Okay, "She is afraid of failing. She does not want to fail." It's similar to saying

"scared of." Okay, so, "Joanna is scared of failing, afraid of failing. She does not want

to fail." The next one, "I think she's tired, hmm, trying." So, "She has been trying and

trying and trying again and again, and now she has grown tired of it." So, so far we

have "in," "about," "of," "of." Let's do another one, "He's worried, hmm, his test." Now, if

I said, "He's worried for his test," what do you think the meaning of that is? It's

possible to say, "He's worried for," but in this situation, if you said, "He's worried

for his test," it means that, you know, his test is like a person, kind of, and his test

has feelings, and maybe his test is depressed. So, he's worried for his test that his test

is going to cry or something. So, here, "He's worried about," right? "He's worried about

his test, about his score." And the last one, "Mark is good, hmm, cooking." "Mark is good

at," okay? This is a really, really common expression. It means you have ability in something,

okay? So, if you have good ability, you are good at something. So, "Mark is good at cooking."

"Mark is great at cooking," "Excellent at cooking." If you want to do the opposite,

you can say, "A person is bad at something," or "Terrible at something," "Awful at something,"

"Horrible at something," okay? So, guys, these expressions are really, really important,

and the prepositions, please, please, please, please, please remember the correct prepositions

that you have to use after these adjectives, because if you use a different preposition,

it will not make sense, okay? So, if you want to test your understanding of these expressions,

of these adjective-preposition combinations, just check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

Good luck, guys. Take care.