WRONG USE OF PREPOSITIONS

One of the difficult parts of speech to use correctly is a preposition. Prepositions are words that are used before a noun, pronoun or gerund; to show a place, a time or a direction of something/somebody. Prepositions are included in everyday English. Therefore, they are inescapable. If one deploys wrong preposition in an expression, such expression might be misunderstood or ungrammatical. 

The prepositions people deploy wrongly on a daily basis are; 

 1. My son is a student AT the University of Lagos. 

Note: A person can be a student AT a school (NOT of). In British English, it is grammatical correct to say 'IN the school. For example, 'The boy is in the school'. 

2. My daughter is a student OF medicine AT University of Nigeria. 

Note: Obviously, a person can be a student OF something (medicine, Biology, English and Literature etc.) AT a school (Oxford University, University of Ibadan etc.).

CAMPUS in the same breath, agrees with 'ON'. The land and buildings of a Univerty or a college is referred to as a CAMPUS. One can be ON a campus or OFF campus. There might be a building that belongs to a school, but situated outside the school. Any student or member of staff living in such building is living OFF campus. 

 3. Benjamin is IN the queue. 

 Note: A line of people is simply called a QUEUE. 'ON' is the suitable preposition to deploy for a person that stands or wait in the queue. standing/waiting/beeing IN the queue does not mean, a person is inside a queue; as people think. 

4. He beckoned TO Ezekiel to fight Ben. 

Note: Beckon is synonymous with CALL. To beckon TO a person is to make a signal with your hand to a person to do something. One beckons TO (NOT on). 

5. In London, I live in an environment - conducive TO learning. 

Note: A place that provides conditions that makes learning easy is conducive TO learning (NOT for). 

 To understand proper use of prepositions, one needs to understand the messages each preposition passes, in order to deploy suitable preposition in all expressions.