2.304 with prepositional phrases

Some nouns, especially abstract nouns, need to be followed by a prepositional phrase to show what they relate to. There is often little or no choice about which preposition to use after a particular noun.

• I demanded access to a telephone.
• ...his authority over them.
• ...the solution to our energy problem.
• ...the bond between mother and child.

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Here is a list of nouns which usually or often have 'to' after them:

• access, addiction, adherence, affront, allegiance, allergy, allusion, alternative, answer, antidote, approach, attachment, aversion, contribution, damage, devotion, disloyalty, exception, fidelity, immune, incitement, introduction, preface, prelude, recourse, reference, relevance, reply, resistance, return, sequel, solution, susceptibility, testimony, threat, vulnerability, witness

Here is a list of nouns which usually or often have 'for' after them:

• admiration, appetite, aptitude, bid, craving, credit, cure, demand, desire, disdain, dislike, disregard, disrespect, hunger, love, need, provision, quest, recipe, regard, remedy, respect, responsibility, room, substitute, sympathy, synonym, taste, thirst

Here is a list of nouns which usually or often have 'on' after them:

• assault, attack, ban, claim, comment, concentration, constraint, crackdown, curb, dependence, effect, embargo, hold, insistence, reflection, reliance, restriction, stance, tax

Here is a list of nouns which usually or often have 'with' after them:

• affinity, collision, collusion, connection, contrast, correspondence, date, dealings, dissatisfaction, encounter, familiarity, identification, intersection, intimacy, involvement, link, parity, quarrel, relationship, sympathy

Here is a list of nouns which are usually followed by one of two prepositions. The list indicates the choice of prepositions available:

• agreement about, agreement on, argument against, argument for, battle against, battle for, case against, case for, debate about, debate on, decision about, decision on, transition from, transition to

Many other nouns are usually followed by a preposition. The following list indicates which preposition follows each noun.

• complex about, --- , crime against, grudge against, insurance against, reaction against, safeguard against, --- , departure from, escape from, excerpt from, freedom from, quotation from, --- , foray into, relapse into, --- , authority over, control over

As you can see from the lists and examples given above, it is often the case that words with a similar meaning are typically followed by the same preposition. For example, 'appetite', 'craving', 'desire', 'hunger', and 'thirst' are all followed by 'for'.