Adjectives and prepositions

Do you know how to use adjectives with prepositions like interested in or similar to? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how adjectives are used with prepositions.

I'm interested in the idea.
My jacket is similar to yours.
She's brilliant at maths.
My neighbour is angry about the party.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1: Grammar test 1: Adjectives and prepositions

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

Some adjectives go with certain prepositions. There are no grammatical rules for which preposition is used with which adjective, so it's a good idea to try to learn them together. To help you do this, write new vocabulary in your notebook in a sentence or phrase.

However, there are some patterns that can help you. Let's look at them first. Remember that a preposition is followed by a noun or a gerund (-ing form).

With at

We use at with adjectives like good/bad/amazing/brilliant/terrible, etc. to talk about skills and abilities.

He's really good at English.
She's amazing at the piano.
They're terrible at organising anything.
I'm not very good at drawing.

With about

We often use about with adjectives of feelings like angry/excited/happy/nervous/sad/stressed/worried, etc. to explain what is causing that feeling.

I'm angry about the decision.
He's nervous about the presentation.
She's excited about the new job.
They were worried about the exam.

With of

However, sometimes we use of with feelings.

She was afraid of telling her mum.
I'm frightened of having an accident.
He's scared of flying.
You should be proud of your progress.

With to

We can use to to show the connection between people or things.

He's married to the director.
I'm addicted to my phone.
I'm allergic to nuts.
It's similar to the old one.

We can also use to to talk about someone's behaviour towards someone else.

They were really friendly to me.
Was he nice to you?
He is always polite to everyone.
She was very rude to the waitress.

Here are some other useful adjectives with prepositions.

With for

Exercise is good for you.
Stress is bad for you.
The town is famous for its cheese.
I'm responsible for the financial side of the business.

With in

She's interested in the project.
They want someone who's experienced in design.
I didn't want to get involved in the argument.

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2: Grammar test 2: Adjectives and prepositions

Try another grammar lesson

Language level

A1 Elementary

A2 Pre-intermediate

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A-Coming through! Move! Move!
B-Excuse me! I was kind of using that machine.
A-Yeah, well, now you're kind of not.
Can you explain the meaning of "kind of" in these sentence. as Cambridge dictionary, the meaning of kind of is used when you are trying to explain or describe something, but you cannot be exact. If I understand "kind of "with the meaning on the sentences, I find that it is meaningless

Hello quydohmu,

Without seeing what actually happened in this encounter -- seeing what person B was doing and/or seeing if A actually pushed B, for example -- I'm afraid it's just not possible to say exactly what B means when they say 'kind of using'. I think you are probably right in thinking that 'kind of' isn't essential to understanding the conversation, though I'm not sure I'd call it 'meaningless'. It probably adds a tone of uncertainty in the case of person B. And then when A says 'you're kind of not', that seems to be them mocking B.

I'm going out on a limb here, but this almost sounds like something from a sitcom like 'Friends'. In that case, you also to consider that the people who wrote the script were trying to get a laugh out of the audience.

Like I said, without seeing the context, I really can't say for sure, but I hope that helps.

All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

E.g: Hey, look, we're on that TV thing.
Can you explain the meaning of TV thing in the example.

Hello quydohmu,

In this sentence 'that TV thing' is just a humorous way to say 'TV'. As a joke the speaker is pretending that they don't really understand what a TV is - as if it were some kind of super-modern technology they haven't seen before.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thanks a lot!

thank

Hi teachers,
Can you please explain, what is the grammatical usage of “ feared” in these sentences. Are they adjectives or anything else?
Thanks.

More than 100 people are feared to have been killed by the military.
The storm is feared to cause flooding.
The missing hikers are feared dead.

Hi Gracy,

All of these are examples of present passive verb forms. We make the passive with be (here, am/is/are) followed by the past participle (the third form of the verb).